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| International | |
| Mubarak fears "friend or foe" policy will backfire | |
| 2001-09-23 | |
President Hosni Mubarak embarked on a European tour Sunday as Egypt balks at joining a US-led coalition against terrorism over fears that the US "friend or foe" policy will backfire. Mubarak headed for a meeting in Paris on Monday with French President Jacques Chirac, who will brief him on his talks in Washington last week, before visiting Berlin and Rome on Tuesday, diplomats said. Mubarak is expected to discuss reservations he disclosed to French paper Le Figaro,
Mubarak said he had not seen any proof behind US claims that Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden is the mastermind of the airborne suicide attacks on September 11 that killed thousands of people in the United States. The Egyptian president's concerns were echoed in the Egyptian Gazette, an English-language government daily, which ran an editorial Sunday entitled "Foe or Friend policy: a divisive formula." In a speech to Americans, US President George W. Bush vowed to tap "every necessary weapon of war" in his anti-terrorism campaign and warned the world: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." But the Gazette said such a call "smacks of misplaced unilateralism and arrogance." Many Egyptians and Arabs say the massive anti-US attacks were partly provoked by unilateral American policies in the Middle East. "The US should manifest willingness to listen to others. But as things stand, the US is projecting itself as an unchallenged leader who will not tolerate views different from its own," it said. | |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |