Hamburg, Dec 18, SPA -- In an unusually strongly-worded warning, Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak says the United States must avoid any military intervention in Iran, according to a published report Saturday. Sending forces into that country in a bid to thwart Iran's production of nuclear materials would be "a mistake of catastrophic dimensions", he told Der Spiegel news magazine. "The result would be a tidal wave of terrorism and unrest throughout the Middle East and, very quickly thereafter, throughout the rest of the world that would overshadow everything that has gone before," he said in an interview due to hit newsstands across Germany on Monday. The Egyptian leader called for U.S. forces to be withdrawn from cities and towns in Iraq, saying they must be replaced without delay by Iraqi military and police forces. "The Americans simply are not in a position to ensure security," he explained. Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Mubarak expressed optimism that the peace process can be revived. "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is apparently prepared to take the courageous step toward peace," said Mubarak. "I am confident that an independent state of Palestine will be called into being by the end of President George W. Bush's second term in office, possibly sometime in 2008," he predicted. --SPA 1414 Local Time 1114 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/225762