Egyptian President dismisses Israeli claims over smuggling weapons into Gaza

President Mubarak: Israeli FM crossed red line in criticizing Egypt

Mubarak says Israel faked smuggling evidence

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak harshly criticized Wednesday Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's recent admonition of Egypt for failing to prevent the smuggling of arms across its border into Gaza.

"It's very easy to sit in an office and criticize our performance on the ground," Mubarak said in an exclusive interview to Yedioth Ahronoth.

The president stated that by opting to publicly pass judgment on the situation along the border, instead of "picking up the phone or conveying a message to Egypt," Livni "has crossed the line with me."

"This works to dampen the atmosphere. The relations with Israel are very important to me, do not ruin them," Mubarak warned. "If you disapprove of the way we handle arms smuggling, you're welcome to do the job yourselves."

The president also stressed that the large quantities of weapons transferred into the Gaza Strip do not originate in Egypt, and that they are shipped through the sea.

"We are exerting 100 percent effort but cannot guarantee 100 percent results. No state can totally seal off its border," the president asserted.

The president accused Israel of fabricating evidence it says implicates Egyptian security forces in helping Hamas militants smuggle arms into Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said this week Egypt was doing a "terrible" job of stopping the flow of arms, and Israeli foreign ministry officials said Israel had sent a videotape to Washington showing Egyptian security forces helping Hamas militants smuggle arms across the border.

"Our officials (saw the pictures)... and I'm informing you that they're fabricated pictures and computer work... Anybody can make pictures of arms smugglers...I can organise pictures of an Israeli man and an Israeli woman smuggling arms and plotting a terrorist operation," Mubarak said. "Anyone who tries to accuse Egypt of cooperating with arms smugglers, I tell him he's a big liar," Mubarak said.

Mubarak also lashed out against criticism that Egypt was not doing enough to prevent arms being smuggled into Gaza.

"If the way we deal with the arms smuggling is not good enough for you, please, do the work yourselves," Mubarak said in the interview with the Israeli daily.

He said Livni "who ran to the media to complain about us and to grade us, instead of picking up the phone or sending an envoy, has crossed my red lines," according to the paper.

Livni told an Israeli parliamentary committee that Egypt's failure to stop arms smuggling risked strengthening Hamas over President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah, backed by the West.

"It's very easy to sit in an office in Jerusalem and grade us on our performance in the field, but it has soured the atmosphere. And relations with Israel are very important to me. Don't spoil them," Mubarak said. Israel says the Islamic militant Hamas has stepped up arms smuggling since it violently seized control of Gaza in June. It has urged Egypt to take tougher action against smugglers along the border with Gaza. Mubarak insisted that the bulk of the weapons don't reach Gaza from the adjacent Sinai desert, but from the sea, and unspecified locations north and south.

On the Palestinian pilgrims who crossed Rafah checkpoint to Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage, Mubarak said "we are a Muslim country and we can not prevent Palestinian Muslims from performing the pilgrimage, and we informed you and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that you have to allow them to pass."

He dismissed Israeli claims, which asserted that part of these pilgrims traveled to receive training in terrorists' camps.

"These are fabricated stories, anyone can fabricate stories. Accusing someone without evidence is the easy part," he said.

Commenting on decreasing the U.S. military aid to Egypt and Israel's role in this context, Mubarak said "its American money, if they want to reduce it, it is up to them, we will not accept orders from abroad and will not accept U.S. pre conditions.

Egypt had accused Israel of encouraging pro-Israeli groups in the United States to lobby members of Congress to the detriment of Egyptian interests.

Two U.S. lawmakers on key congressional panels said in Jerusalem the United States could make future aid to Egypt conditional on Cairo doing more to halt the smuggling.

President Mubarak said the smuggling issue could be tackled by coordinating efforts between Israeli and Egyptian security authorities.

Concerning the Israeli kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, the president said "we exert efforts and Israel knows that we leave no stone unturned to safely send him back to his family through a deal."

Whether Shalit still alive, Mubarak highlighted, "our intelligence reports indicate he is alive and in good health."

Responding whether the soldier could return to his family soon, the Egyptian president told the Israeli journalist "do not ask me questions I can not answer now."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the family of Gilad Shalit that there had been no breakthrough in the quest for his release. During a meeting in his Jerusalem office, Olmert also told the family that he personally, the government and the defense establishment would continue to do everything possible to attain the missing soldier's release.

Shalit was captured June 25 in a cross-border raid and is believed to be held in Gaza. His abduction sparked an Israeli military offensive there that has killed more than 200 Palestinians, most of them militants. He asserted that there is a kind of secret contacts between Israel and Hamas.

Mubarak said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Hamas forces have to withdraw from the Gaza Strip as a condition to start talks on forming a Palestinian national unity.

On calls in Israel to wage a military operation in Gaza, "I hope we shall never reach to this, because military operations will not solve the problem and we can not imagine simple and easy operations, situation could become more complicated," Mubarak explained.

"Egypt guarantees every Israeli or foreign tourist's security. Sometimes I met Israeli tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh and they say they are very happy," he noted.

Following his visit, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the crisis with Egypt was over.

At the meeting with the Egyptian President, the two sides agreed to set up a joint security team to coordinate anti-smuggling operations, and Israel said it would consider supplying Egypt with technology and intelligence reports, Israeli security officials said.

During his trip to Egypt Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian officials have achieved progress towards a potential prisoner exchange agreement including the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

Egyptian mediators convinced Israeli authorities to release 200 long-term Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are leaders in Palestinian military organizations.

Ma'an's sources said Israel has agreed to release the first 100 prisoners when Shalit is handed over to the Egyptian security forces, and another 100 when he has returned to Israel.

Reuters and the London-based Arabic daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper meanwhile reported that European diplomats have spoken with a Hamas official who is in charge of Shalit's case, who said, "Israel reached consent that Shalit's file can not be addressed militarily."

The same official also told Ma'an's source, "Israel eventually complied with most Hamas' demands despite the fact that they knew the prisoners' swap would strengthen Hamas."

Amongst the prisoners nominated to be freed is Abdullah Al-Barghouthi, who was responsible for designing the explosive devices which were detonated in Israeli cafés in Jerusalem years ago killing 66 Israelis.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday held their first summit since renewing peace talks last month, but failed to resolve frictions over planned Israeli construction in disputed east Jerusalem.

Abbas demanded at the meeting that Israel freeze its plan to expand the Jewish Har Homa neighborhood, Palestinian officials said. Abbas had appealed to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ahead of the meeting to pressure Israel to halt the project, Palestinian officials said.

But an Israeli official said after the Olmert-Abbas meeting that Israel continued to claim a right to build in Har Homa, which lies in the eastern sector of Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital.

Israel committed to freeze all construction in West Bank settlements under the recently revived 2003 "road map" peace plan, but it has never honored that obligation.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas stressed the need to stop all settlement activities in order to facilitate the talks on a final peace accord, which were launched at an international conference on the Mideast in Annapolis, Maryland.

But although he reported no progress on narrowing the gaps between the two sides, both sides described the two-hour meeting, held at Olmert's official residence, as "positive" — possibly in an effort to defuse tensions before the arrival in the region next month of President Bush.

Tensions over the plan to build an additional 307 apartments in the neighborhood have already clouded meetings of negotiating teams since the gathering in Annapolis, and have kept peace talks from beginning in earnest.

Har Homa, home to 8,500 people, is part of a ring of Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem where about 180,000 Israelis live. The Palestinians want a halt to all Israeli construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, which they claim as part of a future state. Israel committed to freeze all construction in West Bank settlements under the recently revived 2003 "road map" peace plan, but never honored that obligation.

During Thursday's meeting, Olmert reiterated pledges not to build any new settlements or expand existing settlements beyond their current borders, an Israeli official said.

However, Israel maintains the right to build within the existing limits of major West Bank settlements to account for natural growth. Olmert reiterated that policy Thursday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

Thursday's meeting appeared to calm the atmosphere less than two weeks before Bush's arrival. The American president is scheduled to visit the region on Jan. 8 for the first time in his seven-year tenure to build on momentum from the Annapolis conference.

Before the Olmert-Abbas meeting began, Hamas pronounced the meeting a "waste of time."