Arab press mulls 'tug of war'

Friday's Arabic papers look at the diplomatic offensive being waged by both sides in the Middle East conflict.

Several dailies declare the Israeli prime minister's attempt to drum up support in Europe a failure. And they complain of what they see as Israeli attempts to "sabotage" the roadmap.

An Egyptian paper has some advice for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, ahead of his landmark visit to Washington next week.

In the past few weeks Europe has become a battleground for diplomatic fights between the Israelis and Palestinians. The visits by Palestinian and Israeli officials to European capitals and the trips by Europeans to Palestine and Israel show there is a tug of war, and that there are attempts to attract European support for either Palestinian or Israeli interests.

Al-Quds - Palestinian

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The visit by terrorist Ariel Sharon to some European countries to promote Israel's policies and market them in the European and international arena was unsuccessful.

Al-Thawrah - Syria

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Britain, France and Norway rejected Sharon's proposal to isolate Arafat and the Hamas movement in a bid to ignite an inter-Palestinian war which would sabotage the roadmap.

Al-Jumhuriyah - Egypt

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There is no doubt that Sharon's government is not serious about making any genuine efforts in the peace process. It is continuing to do everything possible to provoke the Palestinian resistance factions to violate the truce... so it can get a chance to sabotage the roadmap.

Al-Ahram - Egypt

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Evidence shows that there is no hope of moving forward to implement any peace initiative under the current Zionist policy of sticking to settlements, which sabotages the principle of land for peace.

Al-Bayan - United Arab Emirates

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The question which [Palestinian Prime Minister] Abu Mazen must pose to the world before he begins his first foreign tour and before meeting US President Bush is on what basis should he negotiate, now that the Israeli parliament has ruled that Gaza and the West Bank are not occupied territories... What he should do before he begins his tour is to ask the US administration and the quadripartite committee to reject this Israeli decision, or the peace process will be a joke.

Al-Akhbar - Egypt

Source: BBC Monitoring research in English 18 Jul 03

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.