COPENHAGEN: Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller denied Friday a claim by his Egyptian counterpart that Copenhagen had ignored offers from Egypt to help it avoid the crisis over cartoons of Prophet Mohammed first published in a Danish newspaper. In an interview published Thursday in the Politiken daily, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit described discussions with Danish authorities in the months before the row over the Mohammed drawings escalated into protests in many Muslim countries. Despite several phone calls with Moeller, Abul-Gheit claimed his warnings were not heeded. But Moeller denied any phone call and said he was the one who first contacted Abul-Gheit in a letter last November. One of us has a bad memory, and it is not me, Moeller told journalists Friday. He added that he wanted through diplomatic channels to let his Egyptian colleague know that he had been cited in a Danish newspaper, and that the information was not correct. The 12 drawings of Mohammed, which first appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten last September, have over the past month sparked violent protests in Muslim countries against Denmark especially, as well as against other European countries where the cartoons have since been reprinted. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has refused to apologize for the publication of the cartoons, insisting that his government has no sway over what appears in the media in Denmark, where freedom of expression is fundamental. In the Politiken interview however, Abul-Gheit claimed Egypt had stated in letters and phone calls to Danish authorities and international bodies last year that an official stand against offending religious beliefs would be enough to defuse Muslim tensions, and that Copenhagen would not have had to compromise on its support for freedom of expression. AFP
Denmark denies Egypt offered help to avoid cartoon crisis
