By NNN-KUNA
Cairo : President Hosni Mubrak has called for a quadruple Middle East summit in Cairo next week to be also attended by King Abdullah of Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told reporters Thursday that the summit would seek an impetus to the Israeli-Palestinian relations, moving towards lessening pressure on the Palestinian people as well as creating a favourable climate for re-launching of the peace process.
Asked if the decisions to be issued by the summit would be binding to all the Palestinian factions, Abul-Gheit said: “When the talk is between the president of the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s prime minister, it is binding to the Palestine Authority and all the Palestinian people.”
He also expressed hope that the proposed summit would witness “re-launching of the peace process” and resumption of the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
“It is not necessary for such steps to start immediately after the summit but at least it (summit) will create a favourable climate that opens the door for negotiations,” the Egyptian Foreign Minister said, referring to what he called negotiations over the past few days.
Commenting on reports that Egypt received some of the Palestinians displaced from the Gaza Strip, he said: “It is unimaginable that the Palestinian people would be forced to turn into refugees again on their own land.”
“We saw the tragedy of the Palestinian people in 1948 and in 1967 … a third time is unacceptable,” he said.