Hosni Mubarak planned to relocate Palestinians in Egypt, reveals Britain’s secret documents

London: The BBC had exclusively obtained Britain’s secret documents which revealed that deposed President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak had planned to resettle Palestinians in Egypt three decades ago. These documents disclose the information of conversational exchanges between the then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Egypt President Mubarak. It also reveal former US President Ronald Reagan’s request of settling the issue.

In the wake of tense situation in Middle East, Mubarak sought to convince US and Israel to accept the establishment of a Palestinian entity in the context of a “confederation” with Jordan, in order to lay the foundations for establishing a future independent Palestinian state. Mubarak also expressed his willingness to host Palestinians from Lebanon despite his awareness of the dangers of such a step. He also insisted that, “A Palestinian state will never pose a threat to Israel.”

To this Thatcher replied that “Even establishing a Palestinian state cannot lead to absorbing all Palestinians in the diaspora.”

“The Palestinians will have their own passports at that point,” he explained, “and they will have different positions. We don’t only have to have an Israeli state and Jewish diaspora, but also a small Palestinian state with Palestinian diaspora.” Replied Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister at the time, Boutros Ghali, to Thatcher.

Thatcher expressed reservations about the establishment of a Palestinian state independent of Jordan: “Some feel that an independent Palestinian state would be under the influence of the Soviet Union.”

To this, Osama Al-Baz, the Political advisor of Mubarak told to Thatcher that “This is a mistaken idea as there will be no Palestinian state under Russian influence. This state will rely economically on the oil-rich Arabs who are very opposed to the establishment of a state loyal to the Soviets in the region. Saudi Arabia, for example, would never allow this to happen.”