Kohl, Mubarak Agree on Strong Role by Europeans in Mideast

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed Friday with visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that European governments should play a stronger role in negotiations to bring about peace in the Middle East.

The two leaders appeared at a news conference shortly before Mubarak flew back to Cairo. They said there could be a role for Europeans in the U.S. effort to bring Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians to the peace table.

Kohl said that during their 90-minute meeting he told Mubarak that he will bring up the matter next week in Paris, where he is to meet with French, Belgian and Dutch leaders.

“I hope that we in Europe can reach a common position on how to make an important contribution,” Kohl said, and added that it is in West Germany’s interest to be helpful to the Middle East region if it can.

Meets With Genscher

Mubarak also met with Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who said he shares the view that Europeans should assume an “operational role” in the peace process.

Genscher, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, “stressed that he would campaign within the European Community for (it) . . . to use all means at its disposal to lobby among the parties involved for progress.”

Mubarak arrived here a day after the departure of Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. On his return to Israel, Peres indicated that not much progress had been made toward restarting the peace process. At the same time, Jordan’s King Hussein and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat are meeting in Amman but have so far failed to reach agreement on a way that might be acceptable to the Israelis for Palestinians to participate in any negotiations.

Mubarak emphasized that the effort to arrange a peace conference is especially vital now, with negotiations toward such a meeting seeming to be at a delicate stage.

Peres Seen as Key

Diplomatic observers here believe that successful negotiations involving the Palestinians can come only while the Israeli government is headed by Peres, who is scheduled to be succeeded as head of Israel’s national unity government in October by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who takes a harder line on negotiations with the Arabs.

Richard W. Murphy, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Middle East affairs, has been in the region trying to work out a formula that will permit Palestinians to join with Jordanians in peace negotiations with the Israelis.

Peres, while he was here, repeated Israeli objections to sitting down with members of the PLO. But Mubarak said Friday, “I have never altered my opinion that ignoring the Palestine Liberation Organization is not conducive to finding a lasting solution.”

Mubarak said his government is in contact with the Israelis on mutual problems and that a delegation from Jerusalem will go to Cairo next week to discuss ways of arbitrating a dispute over a small resort on the Sinai called Taba, which in recent months has strained relations between Jerusalem and Cairo.