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Defense Minister Ehud Minister (left) and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh Wednesday. (Reuters)
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Last update - 08:39 27/12/2007
Report: Egypt's Mubarak delivered message to Barak from Damascus
By Amos Harel and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies
Tags: Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak 

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday delivered a message to Defense Minister Ehud Barak from Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to the Agence France-Presse. Mubarak and Barak met Wednesday in the Sinai resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh.

The Defense Ministry has refused to respond to the AFP's report.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sent Syrian President Bashar Assad a message Tuesday, saying Israel is still awaiting an answer from Damascus on the possibility of reviving peace talks.
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Olmert met with United States Senator Arlen Specter and gave him the message, which will be delivered to Assad when Specter meets with the Syrian president on Thursday.

Olmert told Specter that he has been examining in recent months the possibility of restarting mediated negotiations with Syria. "I am still examining the Syrian track and Damascus' seriousness," said the prime minister. "I have not finished examining the issue, but I have yet to receive a clear answer [from Syria] and am therefore still waiting."

Barak: Israel, Egypt to continue joint struggle against terror
At the end of his meeting with Mubarak on Wednesday, Barak said Israel and Egypt would continue their joint struggle against terror and resolve future disagreements by means of unmediated negotiations.

Barak added that while Israel is not lobbying the U.S. House of Representatives to halt American aid to Egypt, enquiries on the matter are being answered frankly considering Jerusalem's close relations with Washington.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday accused the
Israeli lobby in Washington of straining its relations with the United States by using the issue of smuggling across the Gaza border as an excuse to cut U.S. military aid to Cairo.

The defense minister also said that he expressed to Mubarak during their talks Israel's concerns about the ongoing smuggling of arms and people from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Barak said that that Israel believes deploying additional Egyptian troops along the border with Gaza is unnecessary at this point.

Future negotiations will be judged by their results, Barak said, adding that the issue of the abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit came up during the meeting, but he refused to elaborate.

As to the international efforts to achieve a lull in the fighting in Gaza, Barak said that his Egyptian interlocutors "realize that the IDF activity against terrorists in the occupied territories created pressure and second thoughts" among Palestinians about getting on with the fighting.

Earlier on Wednesday, Barak met General Omar Suleiman, the chief of Egyptian intelligence, and the Egyptian Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi, amid increased tension between the two countries, which came after the unusual criticism voiced Monday by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who said Egypt was not doing enough to stem the flow of arms smuggled into Gaza.

During discussions at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Livni described the efforts by the Egyptian security forces on the smuggling as "bad and problematic."

Egyptian officials assailed Livni on Tuesday, telling foreign news agencies that "it would be best for the Israeli foreign minister to concentrate on furthering the negotiations with the Palestinians, and not discuss things she does not understand."

Egypt: Israeli construction in and around J'lem threatens peace
Also in the talks between Mubarak and Barak, Cairo criticized Israel's renewed efforts to build houses in East Jerusalem and in West Bank settlements, calling them damaging to the peace process.

Mubarak echoed Palestinian demands that Israel cancel a project to build 307 homes in the neighborhood of Har Homa, describing it as damaging to the peace talks, according to presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad.

"This settlement activity will hijack the only outcome of the Annapolis conference, which was the re-launching of peace negotiations," he told reporters following the meeting.

"The failure of two rounds of negotiations between the Israeli and the Palestinian sides this month is due to the Israeli settlement activity," he said.

Awad added that the meeting also concerned bilateral relations and the state of their common border as well as concern that Israeli settlement activity was harming the peace process.

For their part, Israeli officials said the 45-minute meeting covered sensitive issues and took place in a good atmosphere.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were closed, said the sides agreed they have many common interests, including promoting the Mideast peace process and controlling weapons smuggling along the Gaza border.

Before the meeting, the head of the Defense Ministry's political security department, Amos Gilad, said that Israel would refuse an Egyptian proposal to reopen the peace agreement between the two countries in order to permit the deployment of an additional 2,000 troops in the Sinai peninsula.

Gilad accompanied Barak in Egypt. "A state that can create order among 72 million of its citizens can also deal with the situation in Sinai without needing an additional troop deployment," he said.

Egypt seeks to increase its presence in Sinai in order to better combat weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Just before Barak arrived on Wednesday, Egyptian police arrested a weapons smuggler near the border with Gaza and found in his house more than half a ton of explosives, an Egyptian security official said.

Related articles:
  • Olmert to Assad: Israel awaits your response on reviving talks
  • Livni seeking prominent figure to serve as ambassador to Egypt
  • Egypt: Livni should keep quiet on arms smuggling into Gaza Strip
  • Editorial / A partner, not a rival
  • Amos Harel / The Smuggling Tunnels
  • Egyptian police seize 500 kilograms of explosives likely destined for Gaza
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      1.   ok how much does Mubarak want this time 05:26  |  who pays 26/12/07
      2.   Learn to take the bad with the good 08:25  |  Natallie Durson 26/12/07
      3.   Just another pestering, whining visit by Johnny-One-Note 10:45  |  Clickfool 26/12/07
      4.   Goodwill 10:48  |  Clickfool 26/12/07
      5.   a trip to Egypt 10:55  |  pehourticq jean mari 26/12/07
      6.   the only way to preesure Egypt is thru US Aid 11:42  |  Kenny 26/12/07
      7.   It`s a trap 12:48  |  Will 26/12/07
      8.   Clickfool On Goodwill 12:59  |  Neil 26/12/07
      9.   we dont want to stop the smuggling 13:16  |  Barak 26/12/07
      10.   "Aid" to Egypt is a Bribe 13:35  |  David James Vickery 26/12/07
      11.   To Click FOOL and Natallie Doodoo 14:10  |  Jewboy 26/12/07
      12.   Border with Egypt. 14:12  |  Vital 26/12/07
      13.   Really to much to ask??? #2 and 3 14:39  |  Michael 26/12/07
      14.   2: Natalie again supports terror 14:49  |  David Teich 26/12/07
      15.   Clickfool Back on an Israeli Website 14:56  |  Honest Observation 26/12/07
      16.   Israel Has A Choice 15:01  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      17.   NO to Egypt Crap 15:08  |  Brod 26/12/07
      18.   Jacoub Sulleiman again with his own religion and political party 15:27  |  NYC grocer 26/12/07
      19.   and course egypt does not threaten peace ? 15:29  |  victor hardman 26/12/07
      20.   to Honest Obs, 15 Re: where is POP? 15:32  |  bennieyama 26/12/07
      21.   Honest Observation on Clickfool 15:36  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      22.   # 14 David Teich .. 15:36  |  Natallie Durson 26/12/07
      23.   To Jewboy #11 15:38  |  Stranger on da shore 26/12/07
      24.   NYC Grocer and his fruits 15:40  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      25.   More Arab lies 15:48  |  Frank 26/12/07
      26.   yaakov gets it wrong again. 15:50  |  uday 26/12/07
      27.   Question for "Honest" Observation # 15 15:56  |  Clickfool 26/12/07
      28.   let me understand this 15:59  |  vik 26/12/07
      29.   # 23 Strange person on the shore 16:02  |  Natallie Durson 26/12/07
      30.   Honest question about Yaakov 16:07  |  GOD 26/12/07
      31.   uday and his estimations 16:15  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      32.   GOD on Gaza 16:16  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      33.   #25 Natallie 16:21  |  Stranger on da shore 26/12/07
      34.   Yaakov 16:24  |  uday 26/12/07
      35.   Natalie Durston, No you didn`t!!! 16:26  |  Michael 26/12/07
      36.   Yaakov #32 16:36  |  GOD 26/12/07
      37.   Mubarak: Your job is to stop all smuggling into Gaza 16:37  |  Genuine Tosefta 26/12/07
      38.   ok we dont have any friends 16:43  |  Barak 26/12/07
      39.   There is no peace, so consrtuction doesn`t threaten it 16:45  |  Sam 26/12/07
      40.   my job is to stay on the thrown until sonny can take over 16:45  |  Mubarak 26/12/07
      41.   uday, but that is the point 16:49  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      42.   Mubarak give barak a big MU 16:53  |  changin places 26/12/07
      43.   GOD, you might be your own worst enemy #36 17:01  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      44.   # 33 Strange 17:04  |  Natallie Durson 26/12/07
      45.   Mr. Sullivan- # 21 17:11  |  Honest Observation 26/12/07
      46.   # 35 Michael 17:13  |  Natallie Durson 26/12/07
      47.   to Mr Sullivan 17:14  |  uday 26/12/07
      48.   Mr. Sullivan- # 21 (Part 2 of 2) 17:16  |  Honest Observation 26/12/07
      49.   #44nutullie and a peaceful world cannot see the wood 17:21  |  victor hardman 26/12/07
      50.   Re: #35 Natallie 17:22  |  Michael 26/12/07
      51.   i use aliases, proxies, and false IP`s 17:22  |  what you see is not 26/12/07
      52.   The Majority of World Jews 17:24  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      53.   udey, you logic is so profoundly pockmarked 17:28  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      54.   #35 Natallie, by the way... 17:28  |  Michael 26/12/07
      55.   Honest Observer 17:30  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
      56.   anyone who thinks there are only two sides to this issue will 17:36  |  pay attention 26/12/07
      57.   #52 yaakov and the polls taken in his own head 17:41  |  victor hardman 26/12/07
      58.   57. victor littlepuyz know about occupation being in belfast 17:52  |  joooos should listen 26/12/07
      59.   Yaakov 52, again with a small constituency 18:00  |  uday 26/12/07
      60.   Haaretz is more antisemetic than clickfool 18:06  |  mrrad 26/12/07
      61.   59. uday the self important nobody who speaks for all joooos 18:16  |  math 26/12/07
      62.   61. math: thats simple! i am the only true joo on the planet! 18:44  |  uday 26/12/07
      63.   Clickfool, you are Johnny-One-Note 19:09  |  Michael 26/12/07
      64.   #58 more laughs with orange joooce 19:23  |  victor hardman 26/12/07
      65.   #44 Natalie 19:27  |  Stranger on da shore 26/12/07
      66.   64. you a comedian even when serious littleputz 19:32  |  laughing 26/12/07
      67.   Re: 65, Stranger on the Shore 19:57  |  Michael 26/12/07
      68.   point made clickfool !!!!!!!! 21:15  |  erez 26/12/07
      69.   thanks stranger on a shore 21:36  |  ross 26/12/07
      70.   # 44 Stranger 22:11  |  Natallie Durson 26/12/07
      71.   #64 nutullie prromises to try harder to make sense ! 23:13  |  victor hardman 26/12/07
      72.   to Natallie Durson - an advice 00:13  |  Steve the Pals. 27/12/07
      73.   Natallie Durson 01:05  |  PlanoStu 27/12/07
      74.   Is Egypt Fighting Terrorism? 01:12  |  Jane 27/12/07
      75.   Arbes are possesed by the Locust spirit.. 01:37  |  Akram Zekaria 27/12/07
      76.   Sullivan, The "Occupation", Santa, & The Easter Bunny 01:52  |  smarter then Sully 27/12/07
      77.   great partners in peace! 03:21  |  Mark Katzman 27/12/07