April 11, 2002	Thursday	Muharram 27, 1423

AMMAN, April 10: Defying a US request, Egypt declined to condemn a suicide bombing that killed eight Israelis on Wednesday and instead said Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation was justified.

The United States, Egypt’s main financial backer, asked Arab States last week to condemn suicide attacks against Israeli targets as a “terrorist activity” that fuels more violence in the Middle East.

But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Israel’s refusal to negotiate a just peace deal with the Palestinians and attacks on Palestinian cities was behind the suicide bombings by Palestinians seeking liberty.

Maher, on a visit to Jordan to coordinate positions during a visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region, said Israel was reaping the results of its 35-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip.

“Occupation as savage as the occupation we see every day can only generate resistance,” Maher told reporters after meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah.

“If the Israelis think they can continue on this path let me tell them they cannot wipe out the Palestinian people,” Maher said. “The occupation calls for resistance. The actions of the Israelis are the cause of the reaction that happens.”

Both Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab countries in an official state of peace with Israel, have been under public pressure to sever diplomatic ties with the Jewish state and give help to Palestinian fighters.

Jordanian police have been clashing with thousands of Palestinians, who form the majority of the country’s population and demand a tougher Jordanian stance against Israel. Egyptians have been also demonstrating in Cairo.

Maher said Israel must start talks with the Palestinians to grant them their rights to land and property according to international law and UN resolutions.

“There is no other way to ensure security. This (Israeli) force against the Palestinian people will create reaction,” the minister said.

leadership meets: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met top officials in his besieged headquarters on Wednesday, his top adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina said, adding that they would go on to meet US envoy Anthony Zinni.

He said that chief negotiator Saeb Erakat, the head of Gaza’s preventative security service, Colonel Mohammed Dahlan, and information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo had entered the building with Israeli permission to meet Arafat and himself, who have been there since the siege began on March 29.

He said that the group, minus Arafat, planned to meet Zinni, tasked with brokering a ceasefire to end more than 18 months of bloodshed.

45 Israelis leave Egypt: About 45 dependents of Israeli diplomats in Egypt went home to Israel on Tuesday, as angry demonstrations against the Jewish state swelled in several Egyptian cities.

An Israeli embassy spokesman in Cairo confirmed some families had gone back to Israel for a limited period of time.

“A group of the families of the representatives here have left for a limited rest and recreation period,” he said.

Anti-Israeli sentiment has been rising in Egypt and other Arab countries during Israel’s military offensive in Palestinian cities. Frustration with the United States, Israel’s main ally, has also been rife.

An Egyptian student was killed on Tuesday after anti-US protesters in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria clashed with police.

Amid growing protests against Israel and the United States, the Egyptian government last week announced it was severing all but diplomatic contacts with Israel, which analysts said had more symbolic than practical meaning and left many Egyptians dissatisfied.—Reuters