By NNN-KUNA
Damascus : Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Saturday he had high hopes the Arab summit, currently held in Damascus, would be preceded by a resolution of the political conflict in Lebanon to enable it practice its sovereign right as an independent state.
Mubarak, in a speech he distributed here because he was not attending the two-day summit, said the political conflict in Lebanon was threatening its stability and security.
“We had hopes that elements, before the Damascus summit, had culminated to guarantee positive conclusions” to resolve the Lebanese presidential dispute, said Mubarak who commended Saudi Arabia, former Arab League president.
He said he hopes until the last moment that a new president of Lebanon would sit in the seat of Lebanon in the Damascus summit to pave for the Lebanese people to regain their national unity.
Egypt, said Mubarak, was looking forward to see a concrete progress in the inter-Arab relations in order to overcome all problems thus regaining solidarity among Arabs.
A settlement of the political conflict in Lebanon, he added, requires complete implementation of the Arab initiative which calls for electing army commander General Michel Sulaiman as president, forming a government of national unity and wording a fresh elections law.
The Egyptian President called on Arab countries to extend all possible assistance to Lebanon to safeguard its stability.
On Palestine, Mubarak said the Palestinian cause was passing through a “new and dangerous” turning point. He said Israel should realize that the only way out of this conflict was via the just settlement for the Palestinian cause, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and liberating all occupied Arab territories in Syria and Lebanon.
“Security is important but peace is more important,” Mubarak said in his address to the Jewish state.
He, meanwhile, urged the Palestinian parties to unite their ranks and overcome their disputes.
Mubarak, turning to Iraq, said Egypt was looking forward to seeing a united, stable and secure Iraq in which all Iraqis share their fortunes and natural resources, in a way distant from sectarian or racial disputes.
Egypt is ready to support Iraq, which will inevitably return to the Arab fold, he said.