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Egypt in on the ground floor with incoming Bush administration

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Wednesday, January 17, 2001

CAIRO — Egypt has begun talks with the transition team of President-elect George W. Bush and hopes that the incoming administration will bolster U.S. strategic relations with Cairo.

Egyptian diplomats said Bush has already contacted President Hosni Mubarak and Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell has spoken on the telephone with Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa. The talks concerned bilateral relations and Middle East issues.

Egypt's ambassador to Washington, Nabil Fahmi, said the Bush team envisions visits by Egyptian senior officials to the United States in the second half of this year. Fahmi told the Egyptian state daily Al Ahram that he expects relations to be bolstered during the Bush administration.

Egyptian sources said Cairo hopes that the new administration will give greater weight to Egypt's strategic role in the Middle East as well as its leadership of the Arab world. The sources said Egypt will request both stronger economic and military ties with the United States.

Many of the members of the new administration are no strangers to Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981. In an interview with the official Middle East News Agency, the Egyptian president cited his relationship with Powell and Vice President-designate Richard Cheney.

"We will begin direct contacts with them immediately after the inauguration and their settling in office," Mubarak said. "My way of dealing with the different American administrations is total frankness and my frankness is based on justice and rights. I know that my frankness is not liked by all people."

Mubarak recalled fondly the administration of Bush's father from 1988-92. But a senior aide to Mubarak said Egypt would press Washington for the lifting of sanctions from Iraq, which is said to be a priority with the incoming Bush team.

Osama El Baz, Mubarak's political adviser, said United Nations sanctions on Iraq is hurting the people. El Baz said the incoming Bush administration would not pursue the same policy as its predecessor. The adviser said the international climate around Iraq has changed over the last decade.

El Baz's assertion came as Uday Hussein, the eldest son of the Iraqi president, said his country's map should include Kuwait. Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

In Damascus, Syrian leaders also expressed optimism concerning the Bush administration. They said they expected a more effective U.S. mediation for Middle East peace.

"The new U.S. administration realizes that the U.S. initiative, based on which the Madrid peace conference convened was made during the time when the United States was under the rule of the Republicans led by President George Bush," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk A-Shaara said. "Among the reasons that led to its failure was the fact that it did not link between the Arab peace tracks and tried to torpedo one track with another."

Wednesday, January 17, 2001

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