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Egypt rules out sending troops to Afghanistan
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ruled out sending troops to Afghanistan as part of a US-proposed Muslim peacekeeping force, saying he feared they might return to Egypt as terrorists.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ruled out sending troops to Afghanistan as part of a US-proposed Muslim peacekeeping force, saying he feared they might return to Egypt as terrorists.
If the United States wants a peacekeeping force, it is better to look to Muslim countries from East Asia, he said in remarks reported by state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA).
We have already sent people to Afghanistan as fighters, and they returned here as terrorists, and we don't want to create new terrorists, Mubarak said.
He was alluding to Egyptian Islamists who went to Afghanistan to fight the soviet occupation in the 1980s only to return to Egypt in the 1990s to wage a violent campaign against Egypt's secular-led government.
In an interview with The New York Times published before Kabul fell to the northern alliance, Secretary of State Colin Powell proposed sending an international coalition of the willing led by soldiers from Muslim nations to secure Kabul. Turkey, Indonesia and Bangladesh had proposed to take part.
UN special representative for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi has also suggested that an international security presence be deployed which would protect major cities and fill the void left by the ruling Taliban's collapse.
Egypt has contributed to several international peacekeeping forces, particularly in Bosnia and Somalia, but Cairo has repeatedly said that it planned no military role in the US-led war against terrorism.
However, Mubarak said he backed a government representing all the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. I hope stability will take hold, because the fall of Kabul does not mean the affair is over, he told reporters.
Bureau Report
We have already sent people to Afghanistan as fighters, and they returned here as terrorists, and we don't want to create new terrorists, Mubarak said.
He was alluding to Egyptian Islamists who went to Afghanistan to fight the soviet occupation in the 1980s only to return to Egypt in the 1990s to wage a violent campaign against Egypt's secular-led government.
In an interview with The New York Times published before Kabul fell to the northern alliance, Secretary of State Colin Powell proposed sending an international coalition of the willing led by soldiers from Muslim nations to secure Kabul. Turkey, Indonesia and Bangladesh had proposed to take part.
UN special representative for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi has also suggested that an international security presence be deployed which would protect major cities and fill the void left by the ruling Taliban's collapse.
Egypt has contributed to several international peacekeeping forces, particularly in Bosnia and Somalia, but Cairo has repeatedly said that it planned no military role in the US-led war against terrorism.
However, Mubarak said he backed a government representing all the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. I hope stability will take hold, because the fall of Kabul does not mean the affair is over, he told reporters.
Bureau Report