OTTAWA — Whoever ultimately takes control of Egypt’s government after President Hosni Mubarak relinquishes power should be ready to continue to honour the country’s current peace agreement with Israel.
Lawrence Cannon
That was the message Lawrence Cannon, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, had late Sunday afternoon for all parties looking to form the next Egyptian government.
In a statement, Cannon noted that while Canada supports the Egyptian people “as they embark on this vital transition toward a more democratic system of government,” the Canadian government expects “that any government that will emerge will uphold Egypt’s commitment to international law, as well as all past peace accords and agreements, including with Israel.”
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 as an outgrowth of the U.S.-mediated Camp David Accords.
Cannon added that any reform to the Egyptian political system should make that country more, not less, stable.
“While the need for democratic reforms is pressing, reform should not occur in a vacuum that could result in extremism, violence and intolerance. All elements of any future government must never seek to attain political objectives through terrorism,” Cannon said.
Also over the weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama said he was confident that an orderly political transition in Egypt would produce a government that will remain a U.S. partner.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Obama also said the ideology of the banned, Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Eqypt’s best-organized opposition group, includes anti-U.S. strains.
But the Brotherhood lacks majority support, he said.
“What I want is a representative government in Egypt, and I have confidence that if Egypt moves in an orderly transition process, that we’ll have a government in Egypt that we can work with together as a partner.”
Obama said that only Mubarak, who took power in 1981, knows if he will leave office soon.
“But here’s what we know – that Egypt is not going to go back to what it was,” Obama said. “The Egyptian people want freedom, they want free and fair elections, they want a representative government, they want a responsible government. So what we have said is you have to start a transition now.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a broad cross-section of Egyptian political forces to be included in talks with the government to make sure that the Egyptian people’s “legitimate aspirations” are met.
Clinton also stressed that incidents of harassment and detention of activists, journalists and other elements of civil society must stop.
But she also appeared to soften U.S. pressure on Mubarak to step down.
“We want to see a process begun that will lead to an orderly transition that has milestones and concrete steps that lead us toward free and fair elections,” Clinton told reporters on board her airplane on Sunday while returning from a Munich security conference.
Egypt’s vice-president, Omar Suleiman, a longtime intelligence chief, held unprecedented talks with the Brotherhood and other opponents of the regime on Sunday as demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, marking a “Day of Martyrs” for those killed in protests, said they would intensify their 12-day battle to end Mubarak’s rule.
Mubarak has vowed to stay on until elections in September.
With files from Ha’aretz