The London Daily Mail

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER - PUBLISHED: 11 September 2012

On the eve of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York, Mohamed al-Zawahiri, the brother of the Al Qaeda leader, voiced his personal 'peace plan' in an interview aired by CNN.

In the exclusive interview he proposes to mediate a peace deal between the West and Islamists, saying he is in a unique position to help end the violence and that both sides need to make concessions.

Speaking as the al Qaeda leader's brother, he says they are ideologically inseparable.

'Our people like death, the same way others like life,' he tells reporter Nic Robertson. 'But we do not want to get into this endless cycle of violence. We like for the others and us to live peacefully.'

Later he says, 'The portrayal of my brother's ideologies and mine: that it’s blood thirsty, barbaric, or terrorist, is not true at all.'

When asked about the London terrorist attacks of 2005 he says, ‘I am sorry to say that those who caused the London attacks were the West because the oppression was continuous, either you stop the oppression or accept reconciliation.

'You have to be logical, if you want to live in peace then you must make others feel that they will live in peace.’

Mohamed al-Zawahiri spent 14 years in Egyptian jail on charges including terrorism and involvement in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat 1981 - although he denies the charges.

Since his release in May he has written a proposal that he says will end al Qaeda's jihad against the West.

al-Zawahiri's six-page proposal offers a 10-year truce if the following terms are met. In brief they are:

• for the U.S. and West to stop intervening in Muslim lands
• for the U.S. to stop interfering in Muslim education
• for the U.S. to end the war on Islam
• and for the U.S. to release all Islamist prisoners.

The document also calls on Islamists to change their behaviour. He demands that they: 'Stop attacks on Western and U.S. interests'; 'Protect legitimate Western and U.S. interests in Muslim land's, and 'stop provoking the U.S. and the West'.

Before his incarceration for terrorism, al-Zawahiri was military commander of Islamic Jihad that would later ally with al Qaeda.

Back then he reportedly had disagreements with his brother about the way forward for the group. Then came his came his arrest, long before 911, picked up he says by Egyptian authorities in the United Arab Emirates.

Later in the interview Zawahiri reveals that one of the demands is for the U.S. to release Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as 'The Blind Sheikh', a man accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks. (NOTE: Glenn Beck stated on his radio broadcast on 9-14-12, that he anticipates the Obama Administration to release Khalid Shiekh Mohammed)

'Do you think it is realistic that the United States would release some one like this?' he is asked by Robertson.

'Sheikh Mohamed's hand is stained in the blood of the Americans’, replies Zawahiri. ‘We also see the hands of American leaders and soldiers stained in blood of the Muslims.

'Those imprisoned with the Islamic movement would also be released. We want to turn a page and forget the past.'

He adds that releasing a prisoner such as Sheikh Mohamed '...reduces the impression of US arrogance.'

The document was likened by CNN to a similar proposal mooted by Osama bin Laden in 2004, which was followed a year later by the deadly 7/7 London attacks.