Members of both houses of Congress have mounted a drive to convince President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to change his attitude about returning an Egyptian Ambassador in Israel. Mubarak left Washington yesterday after making it clear that he will not be sending back an Ambassador to Israel any time soon.
Sen. Charles Percy (R. II,), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, during the committee’s meeting with Mubarak yesterday, urged him to have the Egyptian Ambassador returned to Israel. Mubarak replied that it was not possible at this time, according to a Percy aide.
Meanwhile, Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D, Ohio) is circulating a letter urging Mubarak to send the envoy back to Israel. An aide to Metzenbaum said 22 Senators have signed the letter and at least 30 signatures are expected before the letter will be given to the Egyptian Embassy here to be forwarded to Mubarak.
Rep. Lawrence Smith (D. Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, presented Mubarak with a similar letter signed by 22 Congressmen during the House Committee’s hearing with the Egyptian President yesterday. An aide to Smith said additional signatures are being sought for a second letter to be sent to Mubarak through the Embassy here.
U.S. officials said that Mubarak gave no new assurances on the Ambassador when he met with President Reagan at the White House last Friday. The Egyptian President told a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations yesterday that Egyptian public opinion was not yet ready to accept the Ambassador’s return to Israel.
URGES HOMELAND FOR PALESTINIANS
Prior to leaving Washington, Mubarak also met with leaders of the House and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. House Majority Leader James Wright (D. Texas) told reporters after the closed-door luncheon with the House members that Mubarak said that the efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and to achieve a lasting solution in Lebanon will fail if the question of a homeland for Palestinians is not resolved.
Mubarak also rejected the nation of a partitioned Lebanon and endorsed the removal of all foreign forces from that country, Wright said. He also said that the Egyptian leader generally supports the role of the U.S. marines in the multinational peacekeeping force,
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