President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt arrived here yesterday for a meeting with President Reagan and other Administration officials this week.
He will confer with Reagan at the White House on Tuesday and will meet with members of Congress. But the Egyptian leader faces demonstrations by some pro-Israel groups who allege that he has violated Egypt’s peace treaty agreements with Israel and expressions of concern by U.S. legislators over what they see as his failure to improve Egypt’s relations with Israel.
Reps. Ron Wyden (D. Ore.) and John McCain (R. Ariz.) announced Friday that they had collected 107 signatures on a proposed sense-of-the Congress resolution calling on Egypt to return its Ambassador to Israel, increase trade and tourism with Israel and “take steps to curb anti-Semitic remarks.” Israelis have complained of anti-Semitic references in the Egyptian media.
Conservative members of the House and Senate sent two separate but similar letters to President Reagan asking him to request assurances from Mubarak that “he will honor his obligations to reestablish normal relations with Israel and insist upon practical steps to implement this normalization.”
The letter from the Senate was sent by Jesse Helms (R. NC) and the one from the House by Duncan Hunter (R. Calif). Together the letters bore 16 signatures.
The letters to Reagan also expressed concern over principles stated in Reagan’s Middle East initiative of September 1, 1982 and called for Administration support of Israel’s control of the West Bank.
DEMONSTRATION AT EGYPTIAN EMBASSY PLANNED
Meanwhile, a coalition of pro-Israel groups announced that more than 100 people would demonstrate outside the Egyptian Embassy here tomorrow to demand that Mubarak fulfill the promises made in the Camp David accords. The theme of the rally will be “no peace, no aid”, a reference to the $2.3 billion in U.S. military and economic aid the U.S. provides to Egypt.
The coalition consists of Americans for a Safe Israel; the Zionist Organization of America; the American Forum for Jewish-Christian Cooperation; and the Herut Zionists. Their representatives will present a letter at the Embassy demanding that Egypt honor its peace treaty with Israel and will seek a meeting with ranking Embassy officials, the organizers said.
MUBARAK GETS FRENCH SUPPORT
(Mubarak, during a stopover in Paris before leaving for Washington yesterday, told reporters he had France’s full backing for the Middle East peace negotiations proposals he intends to present to the Reagan Administration. He said France had agreed to try to persuade the U.S. and Israel to support his plan.
(Mubarak met for three hours with President Francois Mitterrand on Friday. He said later that the French President believes his plan is a “step in the right direction.” It calls for Washington to negotiate with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation as a step toward broader talks with Israel. Israel has made clear that it opposes any contacts, direct or indirect, with the Palestine Liberation Organization and believes Jordan should talk directly with Israel, not through the Reagan Administration.)
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