Egyptian, Azeri presidents discuss bilateral, regional ties

MENA news agency
6 May 07

Cairo, 6 May: President Husni Mubarak and his Azeri guest, President
Ilham Aliyev, held a closed session of talks at Heliopolis
Presidential Palace on Sunday [6 May], which was followed by an
expanded consultations grouping the Egyptian and Azeri delegations,
presidential spokesman Sulayman Awwad said.

After the talks, which dwelt on the situation in the Middle East,
Central Asia and the Caucasus, Mubarak hosted a luncheon in honour of
his Azeri guest and his accompanying delegation, he told the press.

Concerning the Middle East, Mubarak and Aliyev probed ongoing efforts
to activate the peace process on the Palestinian-Israeli track, lift
the blockade imposed on the Palestinian people and ease their
sufferings, Awwad said.

They also discussed Iraq and Lebanon and the situation in the Gulf,
taking into consideration the repercussions of the Iran-West
confrontation on the Iranian nuclear file, he said.

On the situation in the Caucasus, Aliyev expounded Azerbaijan’s top
foreign policy concern, namely its conflict with Armenia over the
Nagornyy Karabakh region, Awwad said.

Mubarak said Egypt always supports international legitimacy but also
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and calls for maintaining efforts
to settle the conflict peacefully within the framework of the four
relevant UN Security Council resolutions, Awwad said.

Aliyev expressed his appreciation over Egypt’s role in its treatment
of Mideast crises and Mubarak’s efforts in containing conflicts and
tension and activating peace efforts and restoring stability to this
part of the world, Awwad told the press.

Concering Egyptian-Azeri relations, the two leaders discussed the
development of the relationship and agreed on the mutual desire in the
promotion of cooperation in the economic, trade, energy and investment
spheres, he said.

Nine cooperation agreements will be signed during Aliyev’s visit to
Egypt, which are to cover the agricultural, economic, scientific,
information technology, energy, money transfer, youth, sports and
tourism domains, he added.

On Egypt’s evaluation of the outcome of the two Sharm al-Shaykh
conferences on Iraq over the weekend, Awwad said no one expected,
including President Mubarak, the meetings to reach a magic solution
and an overnight change in the situation in Iraq. But nevertheless,
the conferences did achieve progress towards Iraqi reconciliation when
all participants affirmed that reconciliation among all Iraqis
regardless of their religion, sect or race was a precondition for
rendering the ongoing political process successful and restoring calm
and security to Iraq, he added.

The conferences did succeed, but President Mubarak had said before
their convocation that they were a step on the road and that they
would be followed by other steps to accomplish the realization of the
Iraqi reconciliation process, being the main prerequisite for
restoring calm and security to this sisterly state, he said.