Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has called for the speedy creation of an independent Palestinian state with the capital in East Jerusalem and pledged to do his best to unite the Palestinians.
"We cannot allow the peace process to make no headway, progress to give way to failures, and tensions to follow relaxation," Mubarak said in his speech in Cairo dedicated to the Muslim holiday of Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Determination).
Direct talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed on September 2 in Washington, after an almost two-year hiatus, with the two leaders expressing their readiness to search for a compromise to achieve long-awaited peace in the region.
Egypt is a key regional mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Mubarak said in his speech that the Palestinian people suffer not only from Israeli occupation, but also from continuing infighting between Palestinian political leaders.
The two largest Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, split in June 2007, some 18 months after Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. In the ensuing armed clashes between the two rival parties, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and pushed the ruling Fatah movement out of the enclave.
RIA Novosti
