Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Esmat Abdel-Meguid told the General Assembly in his address Monday that Egypt supports an international conference on peace in the Middle East which would include an equal role for the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Meguid, who was scheduled to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir Monday evening, said the summit meeting in Alexandria last month between Israeli Premier Shimon Peres and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak represented “a serious endeavor to revive the peace process.”
Meguid characterized the meeting as “a step towards increased flexibility, a deeper awareness of the centrality of the Palestinian question and a key to comprehensive tackling of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
Meguid supported “dialogue and negotiation” as the best means of achieving peace, but stressed that the Palestinian question remains “the crux of the conflict.” He said Egypt is “best equipped” to represent the Palestinians as “a direct party to this dispute.”
The essentials of a settlement with the Palestinians, Meguid said, include the restoration of “their occupied territories in the West Bank, including Arab Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights,” as well as the right to self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state in cooperation with Jordan.
There will be no Daily News Bulletin dated October 6, Rosh Hashanah.
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