President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt called yesterday for the establishment of a Palestinian state as a way of resolving the Middle East conflict.
Addressing the General Assembly, the Egyptian leader, in surprisingly short remarks on the Middle East situation, said that Egypt believes that UN resolutions regarding Palestinian rights and self-determination must be implemented.
“The Palestinian people still live under the yoke of occupation and military rule in the West Bank and Gaza,” Mubarak charged. “Israeli settlements are still being established on their land, and restrictions imposed on their movement and political, economic and cultural activities. Collective punitive measures are still practiced against the Palestinian people and acts of violence and extremism are still escalating.”
Mubarak also said that there is a necessity for halting demographic changes in the occupied territories and said that Arab, Islamic and Christian rights in Jerusalem must be maintained.
FRANCE SUPPORTS HUSSEIN’S INITIATIVE
The Foreign Minister of France, Roland Dumas, speaking before the General Assembly today, declared that his government supports King Hussein of Jordan’s initiative of February II in which he reached an agreement with the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasir Arafat, for a joint delegation to negotiate with Israel.
“My government — as it has demonstrated on many occasions–is ready to support the efforts of those who sincerely desire to work for peace, which can be based only on Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338,” Dumas stated. “To endure, it must take into account two principles that are indivisible Mainly, the right of people to exist in security, and the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, with all that this implies.
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