Roundup: Egyptian role grows amid mounting Palestinian-Israeli tension

As the tension between the Palestinians and Israel continued to build up, Egypt has been playing an increasing role of mediator with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak himself personally involved.

Mubarak, a bigwig in the political and diplomatic arena in the Middle East, made a lightning visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday and held talks with Saudi King Abdullah in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

Egyptian Information Minister Ahmad Nabih el-Fekki, cited by the official MENA news agency, said that talks between the two leaders focused on the tension between the Palestinians and Israel, which has remarkably grown to a dangerous point after an Israeli soldier was abducted by Palestinian militant groups.

The two leaders discussed means to find solutions to the crisis resulted from the abduction of the Israeli soldier, MENA reported.

El-Fekki said that Mubarak briefed the Saudi King on Egypt's contacts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

President Mubarak and King Abdullah reached an agreement that Egypt should continue its mediating efforts to cool down the tension on the Palestinian territories.

Also on Sunday, the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat reported that Egyptian officials have visited the 19-year-old Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit being held in the Gaza Strip in another move aimed to defuse a looming crisis between the Palestinians and Israel.

Shalit was receiving treatment from a Palestinian doctor for bullet wounds, said the report, without giving the time of the Egyptian officials' visit.

But a source close to an Egyptian security delegation, which is currently visiting the Palestinian territories, on Monday categorically denied allegations that the delegation had visited the abducted soldier, according to MENA.

The Palestinian-Israeli tension has grown to an explosive point after Shalit was abducted by three Palestinian military groups, led by ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)' armed wing Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, on June 25 during a deadly attack on an Israeli army post.

In response, the Israeli armed forces launched a broad ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, the first major operation there since Israel pulled out forces and settlers from it last summer after 38 years of occupation.

Since Shalit's abduction, Mubarak have held contacts with a number of leaders including Abbas, Olmert, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, French President Jacques Chirac and the Saudi King as the latest.

To this point, Mubarak had held phone talks with Abbas at least four times since Shalit's abduction on June 25, according to MENA.

"I have been personally making all possible efforts to prevent a catastrophe which could destroy the whole (Mideast) region," the veteran president said in an interview with Egypt's top-selling daily al-Ahram published on Friday.

According to the daily, Mubarak then said that Hamas seemed to be willing to conditionally release Shalit as a result of Egypt's contacts with Palestinian groups including Hamas.

But such mediating efforts by Egypt and Mubarak himself have so far given rise to little significant progress on neither the release of the soldier nor an ease of the Palestinian-Israeli tension.

Egypt, one of the only two Arab countries -- besides Jordan -- to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, has long played the role of mediator between the Palestinians and Israel.

Egypt also maintained good relations with various Palestinian political factions including Abbas' Fatah party and the ruling Hamas movement.

Before the crisis generated by the soldier abduction, Mubarak has been making efforts to host a tripartite summit, which he hoped could bring together Abbas, Olmert and himself.

On June 4, Mubarak met with Olmert in Egypt's famous Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, which was the first of its kind since Olmert became Israeli prime minister on May 4.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a phone talk on Sunday that solution to a kidnapping crisis depends on Damascus.

"The directive to carry out operations and orders to carry out terror attacks all come from there (Syria) and the Syrian leadership must dismantle the terror groups' headquarters in its territories," Olmert said.

Media reports said that Syria is under pressure from Israel which has accused Khaled Mashaal, Hamas politburo leader based in Damascus, of ordering the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and urged Syrian leaders to pressure Mashaal to facilitate the release of him.

Maybe that's why Egypt's mediating efforts have so far made little significant progress to cool down the ongoing Palestinian- Israeli tension, observers said.

Since it is one of the only two Arab countries to have diplomatic ties with Israel and also a "big brother" of different Palestinian factions, Egypt should continue its mediation between the two conflicting sides, they urged.

Source: Xinhua