Egyptian Journalist Says Peace Will Be Precarious

Pursuing peace with Israel is "contradictory" to obtaining social peace within Egypt, a leading Egyptian journalist said yesterday at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Muhammad Sid Ahmad, addressing a Middle East forum, said that because Egypt's new president, Hosni Mubarak, is not Sadat, Israel will "need more guarantees" before it pulls out of the Sinai under terms of the Camp David accords.

"He [Mubarak] will be put to test," Sid Ahmad said, adding, "Sadat's test killed him."

By identifying with the Judeo-Christian West, Sadat alienated himself from the Islamic world, facilitating religious, as well as secular, opposition to the peace process, Sid Ahmad said.

Mubarak may not be able to continue the peace process, the journalist said. "Because the assassination was not a coup formal structure remains. But is formal structure enough?" Sid Ahmad asked, adding that Mubarak has "no political background."

Stressing that the Arab-Israeli conflict is not a bilateral but global issue, Sid Ahmad said that "the concept of peace after the '73 war departed from the idea that regional peace would be a subsystem of international detente." Regional peace is now subordinate to a global cold war, heavily influenced by Soviet threats and U.S. interest in Arab oil, Sid Ahmad said.

"Egypt without others cannot make peace," he added.