Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday said that in his view, the sole hindrance to peace between Israel and the Arab world is Israel's insistence that Jews can live anywhere, especially in Jerusalem.

Speaking before the Egyptian parliament, Mubarak accused Israel of "destroying the opportunity for peace, with its plans to populate Jerusalem with Jews."

Mubarak also echoed Hamas and other radical Islamic claims that Israel is trying to undermine the foundations of the Al Aqsa Mosque that occupies the southern end of the Temple Mount. Israel is carrying out excavations in the vicinity of the Old City, as it has done for decades, but none of them run under the Temple Mount.

The Egyptian leader went on to blast Israel for allegedly imposing new peace conditions on the Palestinians by demanding that Israel be recognized as "the Jewish state." In fact, Israel's earliest peace agreements with the Palestinians carried this condition, though it has never been honored by the Palestinian Authority.