Secret
British documents have revealed that deposed Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak had agreed to resettle Palestinians in Egypt over three
decades ago. According to the documents, obtained exclusively by the
BBC following a Freedom of Information Act disclosure request,
Mubarak was responding to an American request when he made his offer.
The former president stipulated that in return for agreeing to the
move, an agreement to end the Arab-Israeli conflict must be reached.
The
documents show that Mubarak revealed the US request and his response
during talks with the then British Prime Minister, the late Margaret
Thatcher. The talks were held during his visit to London on his way
back to Washington, in February 1983, where he met with the late US
President Ronald Reagan.
The
two visits occurred eight months after Israel had invaded Lebanon on
6 June 1982 under the pretext of waging a military operation against
the PLO. This was prompted by an assassination attempt against the
Israeli ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov.
In
light of the very tense situation in the Middle East, Mubarak sought
to convince the US and Israel to accept the establishment of a
Palestinian entity in the context of a “confederation” with
Jordan, in order to lay the foundations for establishing a future
independent Palestinian state. According to the record of his meeting
with Thatcher, Mubarak said that when he had been asked to accept
Palestinians from Lebanon, he told the US he could do so only within
the context of a comprehensive plan to resolve the conflict. The
former president expressed his willingness to host Palestinians from
Lebanon despite his awareness of the dangers of such a step. He also
insisted that, “A Palestinian state will never pose a threat to
Israel.”
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