Prime Minster Ariel Sharon is the only Israeli leader who can make peace, says Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, while cautioning it would be a "disastrous mistake" for Israel to isolate the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip once it completes its Gaza pullout.
In an Israeli newspaper interview this weekend, Mubarak also said he is considering visiting Israel to attend a memorial for Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister assassinated 10 years ago by a Jewish extremist over the Oslo peace accords that Rabin signed with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"I want to come to Israel, but when the time is right. I was invited for a memorial ceremony for Rabin. I hope to be able to come, because of my esteem and regard for Rabin," he told the Yediot Ahronot correspondent in Cairo.
If Rabin had lived, Mubarak said, it would have been easier to conclude a full peace agreement with the Palestinians.
"When Rabin went, the problems started. Israelis came in and extended the settlements [colonies], and things got complicated. The only one left is Sharon." The Egyptian leader said Sharon had the necessary grasp of security issues, the power and the decisiveness to make peace, and praised him as a man of his word.
