Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Egyptian President Muhammed Hosni
Mubarak Wednesday night talked over phone as requested by the
latter.
The two presidents exchanged views on combating terrorism and the
Middle East peace process.
Mubarak elaborated Egypt's position and views on combating
terrorism and the Middle East peace process.
He
stressed that the international community should make various joint
efforts to fight terrorism, and he held that the international
community should urge Israel and Palestine to come back to the
negotiation table and move forward the Middle East peace
process.
Jiang reiterated the principled stance of China on combating
terrorism.
He
pointed out that as for the issues on combating terrorism and
safeguarding international peace, both China and Egypt hold that
international cooperation should be strengthened and the role of
the United Nations should be put into full play. China and Egypt
are against linking up terrorism with religion and ethnic
problems.
Jiang said: We appreciate the active role played by Arabic
countries, especially by Egypt, in fighting terrorism and
safeguarding regional peace and stability.
As
for the Middle East peace process, Jiang said that the Middle East
issue is very important and it is directly related to world and
regional peace and stability.
He
said China always supports the legitimate right of the Palestinian
people and the just struggle of the peoples of Arabic
countries.
He
said: We always hold that peaceful negotiation is the only correct
choice for the settlement of the Middle East issue.
Jiang said that under the current situation, it is especially
important for the international community to adopt a more active
attitude to push the Middle East peace process forward, and China
supports Egypt to play a positive role in the Middle East
region.
Latest Developments Related to Terror Attacks on US
The following is major latest developments related to the September
11 terror attacks in the United States.
--
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the code
name of the U.S. military buildup in response to the September 11
terrorist attacks was changed to "Operation Enduring Freedom" from
"Operation Infinite Justice."
--
Three men on Tuesday were arrested in the central English city of
Leicester on terrorist charges. Reports here quoted a police
spokeswoman as saying that the men, aged 29, 35 and in his mid-20s
respectively, were being held for questioning and their homes were
being searched for further evidence.
--
The U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday called an additional 1,940
members of the Reserve troops and National Guard to assist active
troops for fighting against terrorists. They are in addition to
more than 10,303 Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard members
already called up since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The
Pentagon has said it expects to call up as many as 35,500
reservists to help with recovery efforts in New York and Washington
and to bolster U.S. air defenses.
--
A number of people, most of whom are followers of Osama bin Laden,
were reported to have entered Batam Island, Indonesia, after they
earlier made a series of meetings with counterparts from some Asian
countries. But there has been no official statement from the
authorities on the report, according to the Antara News Agency
Wednesday.
--
U.S. President George W. Bush has postponed his scheduled visit to
three Asian countries including China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry
said Wednesday.
--
The American Red Cross will grant up to 30,000 dollars to each
family of those who died or were missing in the September 11
terrorist attacks, the organization announced Tuesday. The first
tax-free payments were already sent to families Friday to help them
with mortgage or rent payments and funeral costs.
--
Thousands of angry Afghans on Wednesday set fire to the U.S.
embassy building in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, according to a
report by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
--
The Lebanese authority is planning to freeze bank accounts
suspected of being linked to terrorism, Oriental radio reported on
Wednesday. Riad Salameh, governor of the Lebanese Central Bank, was
quoted as saying "The parliament has passed in April 2001 a law to
fight against money laundering and will block accounts suspected of
being linked to terrorism."
--
The Pakistani-Afghan border remains closed, but it is still open to
U.N. agencies with wheat supplies,
a Foreign Ministry
spokesman said.
--
Three Japanese groups have separately protested expected U.S. armed
retaliation for the September 11 terrorist attacks against the
United States and the Japanese government's move to send the
Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to support such military strikes, Kyodo
News reported.
(China Daily
09/27/2001)