Retired Egyptian General Sallah Salim: Egypt Should Revoke Its Peace Agreement with Israel and Regain Eilat

Following are excerpts from a press conference with Egyptian analyst Gen. [Ret.] Sallah Salim, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on September 27, 2007.

Salim: Our dear animal friend Ehud Olmert wrote in the journal of the World Zionist Organization in February 1982 that regaining Sinai is one of Israel's national goals. That jerboa rodent said this. We should have allocated funds for this national project and given it priority. The private sector was supposed to have invested 38 billion in Sinai. It has invested only two billion. It established one factory for white cement, another for black cement, in addition to a factory for sand bags. Where is the private sector? We've given incentives to businessmen, offered them governmental positions, and let them lead the Egyptian industry, but they are cowards. They do not want to invest in Sinai, because they are afraid it will be attacked once again. When I offer incentives to any sector of society, I do this do that they will sacrifice their lives. I give incentives to the farmers, laborers, and intellectuals, because the fighters who are martyred in Egypt's wars come from their ranks.

[...]

Salim: The U.S. wants to serve Zionist enterprise as much as it can. The Zionist enterprise in the region is an American imperialist enterprise of the highest degree. No one should say that Israel controls the U.S. This is futile talk, even if Judaism or the Zionist capital has great weight. U.S. President Harry Truman recognized the State of Israel in 1948, 30 minutes before Ben Gurion declared its existence. He said: "The U.S. recognizes Israel," and 30 minutes later, Ben Gurion declared the establishment of this state. Truman had not mastered the art of timing.

Salim: It is the right of the Egyptian media to remind the Egyptian people that the city of Umm Al-Rashrash [Eilat] is Egyptian, and that the Egyptian people will one day regain it. Some say that the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement decided the issue, but this is not the case. According to the Egyptian peace agreement, our border with Palestine is the border of the British mandate. The military appendix resolved the issue of the border in Taba, but there is a contradiction in the articles of the agreement, which should be interpreted in our favor. In addition, after 25 years, agreements can be amended or revoked, and new agreements, reflecting the new strategic situation, can be signed. From the days of the Peace of Westphalia in the 17th century, no international agreement on the face of the earth has remained unchanged. Even the Americans revoke the ABM missile defense treaty, and the Russians revoke the treaty on conventional weapons in Europe.