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borgslayer
Rear Admiral
Joined: 27 Aug 2003
Posts: 2646
Location: Las Vegas
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 Wed Apr 27, 2005 6:10 pm Putin wants Moscow Mideast talks |
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 Posted: 7:15 AM EDT (1115 GMT)
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a Mideast peace conference in Moscow in the autumn, and he and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak also ended their landmark meeting by urging the United Nations to play a larger role in Iraq.
The Russian president, leader of one of the four powers backing the "road map" plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, said Wednesday he would discuss the peace conference proposal with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during his visit to Israel, which was to begin late Wednesday.
"I am suggesting that we should convene a conference for all these countries concerned (with the Mideast peace process) and the Quartet, next autumn," Putin said in Russian during a joint press conference with Mubarak. The so-called Quartet includes Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
Putin said foreign ministers of the quartet will meet in Moscow on May 8 to discuss the Middle East peace process. He did not say at what level he was proposing the autumn conference, saying he still needed to speak with Sharon.
After a long period in which Israel and the Palestinians blamed each other for stalling the peace process, the roadmap has been revived. Israel is expected to begin withdrawing its forces from the Gaza Strip later this year, a pullout Egypt is cooperating with to ensure stability.
The two men also discussed Iraq, where violence has been on the rise again in recent weeks.
"The United Nations should play a role in helping Iraq and in particular in rebuilding its constitutional and legislative institutions," Mubarak told reporters at the news conference.
"It should also play a role in the reconstruction of Iraq," Mubarak said.
The two spoke to reporters after Mubarak's second session of talks with Putin, whose visit to Egypt was aimed at reviving Moscow's influence in the region.
Putin, the first Russian or Soviet leader to make an official state visit to Egypt in 40 years, discussed the Israeli-Palestinian dispute with Mubarak when the two men met Tuesday evening after Putin's arrival.
In an interview in the leading Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, Putin stressed that his visit to Egypt -- his first to an Arab country since becoming president in 2000 -- was intended to bolster ties with a region where the former Soviet Union once wielded tremendous influence.
Commercial ties between Russia and Egypt are growing. Last year trade turnover doubled to reach $834 million (�643 million). Putin's delegation includes Russian business executives who are expected to meet Egyptian industrialists interested in Russian technology.
The last Kremlin chief to make an official state visit to Egypt was Nikita Khrushchev, who in 1964 inaugurated the first stage in the construction of the Aswan High Dam -- a hugely ambitious project to irrigate arable land and which once supplied up to 80 percent of Egypt's electricity. The dam was partly financed and built with Soviet help.
But the close ties forged between Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and Moscow lapsed after his death in 1970, when the Arab nationalist hero was succeeded by Anwar Sadat, who set the regional powerhouse on a new pro-American track that accelerated under Mubarak.
Egypt is now the second-largest recipient of U.S aid after Israel, and is seen as a staunch ally of Washington.
Russia, in turn, has forged stronger ties with Israel, which is home to a large Russian-speaking population and cooperates closely with Moscow on anti-terrorism efforts.
Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, never held a presidential meeting in Cairo, but he attended an international summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik in 1996.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/27/russia.meast.ap/index.html
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Russia wants peace in the middle east and wants U.N. to do more in Iraq.
This sounds like a good plan for putin, he sounds more like President Bush now.  
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