Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2000, page 100

Diplomatic Doings

Muslim- and Arab-American Leaders Meet with Presidents Clinton and Mubarak

Muslim and Arab American leaders were invited to a roundtable briefing with President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa on March 28 in the West Wing of the White House to discuss Middle East issues. The meeting marks the first time in which both Muslim- and Arab-American community leaders were asked by an American president to meet as a group with a visiting head of state.

Among those invited were Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Ahmed H. Zewail of the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Farouk El-Baz of Boston University, World Bank vice president for special programs Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Professor of Economics Dr. Ibrahim Oweiss of Georgetown University, adviser to the executive director International Monetary Fund Dr. Magda Kandil, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) vice president Khalil E. Jahshan, American Muslim Council (AMC) executive director Aly Abuzaakouk, Muslim Public Affairs Council’s president Dr. Maher Hathout, Arab American Institute president Dr. James Zogby, executive director of American Task Force for Lebanon Dr. George Cody, president Hani Masri of Capital Corporation, and University of Southern California’s professor of anthropology and community activist Dr. Fadwa el-Guindi.

The two-hour meeting focused on the bilateral relationship of the United States and Egypt, as well as their roles in the Middle East peace process, and the Geneva meeting two days earlier between President Clinton and Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad. Both President Clinton and President Mu barak expressed their disappointment at the failure of the Geneva summit to revive the Syrian-Israeli track. Both vowed, however, to confer with the Syrian president and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in efforts to bridge the gap between their respective positions. President Clinton, who promised to continue his “high-level participation” in the talks, described these differences as “simple but difficult,” and said that the focus would now shift to the Palestinian track.

Jahshan asked President Mubarak to comment on his discussions with Mr. Clinton on the economic sanctions against Iraq. President Mubarak said that the economic sanctions have exhausted their usefulness as a policy and need to be lifted. He said that all parties should work together to find the “right formula” for lifting the sanctions against the Iraqi people. While admitting that the United States “cannot totally evade responsibility” for the sanctions, President Clinton said that the issue has “bedeviled us for years.”

Other issues brought up included the need for intercultural exchanges between the U.S. and the Arab world; the Palestinian refugees as the core of the peace process; and the conversion of the Middle East into a nuclear-free zone.

Participants discussed strengthening the role of the Muslim- and Arab-American community in formulating American policy. Albright voiced her concern about the need to rectify the under-representation of both communities in the State Department. The meeting concluded with hopes for even stronger American-Egyptian relations as Muslim, Arab-American, and Egypt ian-American communities work together to broaden the relationship between the United States and the Arab world.

—Delinda C. Hanley