Egypt's Mubarak: US Response "Too little, too late" (TIME)

[kpete]

Egypt's Mubarak: "No Light at the End of the Tunnel"
America's major Arab ally tells TIME that the U.S. response to the Lebanese crisis was "too little, too late" and reveals details of Egypt's attempt to mediate
By SCOTT MACLEOD

Posted Thursday, Jul. 27, 2006
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict for the past 25 years, is expressing displeasure with the Bush Administration's handling of the conflict in Lebanon. In written responses to questions from TIME, Mubarak said the emergency meeting with Arab envoys hosted by Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice in Rome Wednesday failed to halt the bloodshed. While not directly criticizing the White House's refusal to call for an immediate cessation of Israel's attacks on Lebanon, he complained that the crisis "could have been contained at its early stage" and demanded that the international community issue "a serious and urgent demarche" diplomatic protestto achieve peace and security.

Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, Mubarak said, "went way too far" and has "triggered an increasing rage within the Arabs, Moslems and worldwide." With the broader Middle East peace process at a stalemate, he expressed pessimism about resolving the crisis. "There is no light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

In the interview, Mubarak also revealed details of the Egyptian mediation that nearly defused the escalating Middle East crisis before it spread from the Gaza Strip to Israel's northern front on July 12. On the eve of the outbreak of hostilities in Lebanon, he said, Egyptian intelligence operatives almost brokered a deal for the release of an Israeli soldier kidnapped by militants of the Palestinian Hamas group based in Gaza. But he said that "certain third parties" — an apparent reference to Hamas exile leader Khaled Mishal and the Syrian regime in Damascus that supports him — "aborted our efforts." He also revealed that he asked Syrian President Bashar Assad to intervene with Hizballah to win the freedom of the two Israeli soldiers the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group captured to ignite the fighting in Lebanon. But Mubarak indicated that he would not join the U.S. push for Arab pressure on Syria, a key backer of Hizballah along with Iran, arguing that "attempts to isolate Syria are counterproductive." Mubarak criticized Hizballah for acting as a "state within the state," however, and complained that Iran's opposition to Arab-Israeli peace "further complicates an already complicated situation."

Excerpts from the interview:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1220010,00.html