Peres Going to Cairo to See Mubarak; Europeans Endorse Soviet Plan for Peace Talks

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Monday that he will visit Egypt this week to meet President Hosni Mubarak in an effort to revive Mideast peace efforts.

“We began a peace process, we must continue it,” Peres told Israel radio. “If we do not develop it, the process could collapse. I see this as one more step on the road to stick to the path of peace and develop it.”

Peres will leave Wednesday for a two-day stay in Cairo after an invitation by his Egyptian counterpart, Esmat Abdel Meguid, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Ehud Gol.

Last September, Peres, then prime minister, held talks with Mubarak in Alexandria and declared 1987 “a year of negotiations for peace” in the Middle East.

Key Condition

The two leaders agreed to set up a preparatory committee to pave the way for an international Middle East peace conference but disagreed on who should represent the Palestinians. Mubarak said the Palestine Liberation Organization should take part, but Israel rejected any contact with the PLO, which it considers a terrorist group.

Most Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan, favor an international conference and have made it a key condition to talking peace with Israel.

However, right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir disagrees with Peres and has called instead for direct talks between Israel and its Arab neighbors, saying an international conference would put undue pressure on Israel to make territorial concessions.

The division between the two leaders on this issue could provoke a crisis in Israel’s fragile multi-party governing coalition.

Resolution Passed

Meanwhile, in Brussels, foreign ministers of the 12-nation European Communities on Monday passed a resolution that backs a Soviet proposal for a U.N.-sponsored international peace conference on the Middle East.

Yossi Beilin, a top Foreign Ministry official and aide to Peres, endorsed that resolution, calling it a “suitable framework for the necessary negotiations between the parties directly concerned.”

Beilin said in a written statement to reporters that he “hopes the declaration will help advance the peace process in our region. . . . In light of the announcement, Europe can play a more positive role than before (in the process).”

Beilin noted “the decision’s failure to mention the Palestine Liberation Organization.”

Earlier European resolutions have explicitly mentioned a role for the PLO in peace talks. The latest resolution said that Palestinians must be “associated” in peace talks and did not name the PLO.