Peres Meets Mubarak in Geneva on Prospects for Mideast Peace

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he discussed an American proposal for a Middle East peace agreement with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday.

“The fact that there is an American document reflecting views that are common to Israel, Egypt and Jordan is quite an achievement,” Peres told reporters after talks with Mubarak that ran almost two hours.

The men also agreed that Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel Meguid will pay an official visit to Israel in two weeks, Israeli spokesman David Danieli told reporters.

Peres said: “We have made progress. We have encountered difficulties, but I am leaving with a sense of progress.”

Opposed by Shamir

Peres and Mubarak issued a joint statement in Alexandria, Egypt, in September, 1986, when Peres was prime minister of Israel’s fragile national unity coalition, calling for an international peace conference to help seek a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Yitzhak Shamir, Israel’s current prime minister, has voiced strong opposition to such a meeting, saying it would not be in Israel’s interest.

Israeli and Egyptian officials told reporters Thursday that the two main obstacles to calling such a conference were deciding what role, if any, the Soviet Union should play and how the Palestinian people should be represented.

Peres, asked what were the main obstacles, said: “For the time being, the Russian position vis-a-vis the nature of the conference and vis-a-vis its relationship with Israel.”

Moscow severed relations with Israel after the 1967 Middle East War, in which Israeli forces captured the West Bank of the Jordan River, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Positions Need Clarification

Peres said all parties involved in the conflict must now try to clarify their positions on Soviet and Palestinian participation in an international peace conference.

Asked if Moscow should be part of such a conference, he said, “If they will accept the rules of the game.” He did not elaborate.

Mubarak later told reporters during a reception for the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, taking place in Geneva, that the Soviet Union had a role to play in the peace process.

“The Soviet Union must be part of an international conference because it is the second world power and could be a good guarantor,” he said.