New Egyptian foreign minister says Egypt will not remain 'strategic treasure' to Israel

Palestine Information Center - The new Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi has criticized the Egyptian position as Israel launches a new aggression on the Gaza Strip, saying a national security council consisting of foreign ministers and experts should have been created to deal with the position in Gaza.

He said that Egypt requires a national security council to examine decisions and provide ideas according to the systems of developed countries.

According to Arabi, under the old regime, Egypt's foreign policy was turned into not more than a ”reaction” for current events, and issues were managed randomly and improvised.

Arabi explained Israel's intent behind the Camp David Accord was to naturalize the Arab state's treatment of Israel. Egypt had signed the treaty and must abide by it, he said. And Israel must also abide by its clauses.

”We will stick to all of the treaties we signed, and we will demand that they keep their side of the deal,” Arabi said.

”There must be some decisiveness in the issues Israel has not abided by, such as the clause that states that Israel must maintain peace with countries that want [peace], which has not happened with Palestine, which has agreed to peace with Israel,” he said. ”The conflict between Palestine and Israel should be ended and not managed...for the benefit of Israel, Palestine and the entire world.”

He added: ”We will not be a strategic treasure for Israel as they used to say during the time of Mubarak. We will only abide by the treaties.”

The Egyptian delegation had opposed the Camp David Accord and had told Pres. Sadat not to sign. But Sadat insisted on doing so.

Arabi said Egypt will revive its national role as the largest country in the Arab region and has paid a high price for standing for what is right and maintaining agreements or rights.
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