Washington – Missed opportunity? Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak revealed in an interview to the “The Charlie Rose Show” on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network in the United States that his country had nearly freed kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
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“We were about to have Shalit released to us, but an intervention by external elements disrupted the process and led to delays,” he said, noting that Egypt was involved in the matter together with Germany.
In an interview broadcast Monday night ahead of Mubarak’s meeting with US President Barack Obama, he refused to commit to an imminent solution to the matter.
He added that Israel was also responsible for the delay in Shalit’s release. “We agreed on the release of a certain number of prisoners, and then Israel added restrictions which prevented progress,” he said.
The Egyptian leader added, “We are making efforts, the Germans are willing to help us, and we welcome that. According to the deal, we were supposed to get Shalit and Israel should have released a certain number of prisoners. Had it been done, we would have handed Shalit over to the Israelis. We continue to work in that direction and hope for a good ending.”
The Egyptian president said Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should concentrate on an overall peace deal, rather than getting hung up on the settlement issue.
“If Israel solves the problem between them and the Palestinians, and two states are established, Israel with Palestine, two states, I think Arabs, we can have normal relations with Israel,” Mubarak said.
“Instead of saying stopping more settlements, and we heard this many times, now for over 10 years, and (they) never come to a stop, what I can say is that we have to consider the whole issue holistically, to negotiate on the final resolution.”
Mubarak said he supports discussing the borders of the future Palestinian state first. He believes defining the borders would help solve the other core issues as well. He defined the Israeli government’s acceptance of a two-state solution as “a first positive step.”
I wouldn’t expect anything better from an Egyption arab. Its allways the Jew that’s at fault.
“The Egyptian leader added, “We are making efforts, the Germans are willing to help us, and we welcome that. According to the deal, we were supposed to get Shalit and Israel should have released a certain number of prisoners. Had it been done, we would have handed Shalit over to the Israelis. We continue to work in that direction and hope for a good ending.”
How many prisoners do they want released for Shalit? It should be an even deal, 1 for 1.
Mubarak said:
“we would have handed Shalit over to the Israelis”
“WE”
Makes Mubarak responsible.
When the Arabs complain that “the life of one Jew is worth a thousand Arabs” they are the ones who made up that equation.
It is interesting that he feels he could say this things after meeting with the US government
as of today arabia in israel out arabs can now say what ever they like israel must do as told very sad time for jews in the obama world
I believe the Mubarak “we” is used in the context of the internation community working for the release of the jewish soldier. You jews are so paranoid.