Mubarak Says Settlements Are 'a Time Bomb'
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said today that he considered Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza to be a "time bomb" in the efforts to settle the Middle East conflict.

"There's a problem between the United States and Israel and the Arab world because of the settlements," Mr. Mubarak said on "Fox News Sunday." He said involvement by the United States was "the key for the peace process" because the Palestinians and Israelis alone would not be able to restart negotiations.

Palestinians and their Arab allies have called for the settlements to be dismantled. Mr. Sharon wrote in an article published on the The New York Times Op-Ed page today that Israel would reject any peace plan that required it to return to 1967 armistice lines.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip long have been targets of attacks by Palestinian militants. The most recent came on Saturday when a Palestinian gunman killed a man and woman in a settlement south of Bethlehem in the West Bank.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/10/international/middleeast/10EGYP.html