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Abbas Briefs Arafat on Meeting with Rice, Egypt Urges Israel to Reciprocate Palestinian Truce
29/06/2003
Palestine Media Center – (PMC)
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas briefed the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on his talks late Saturday with the US national security adviser Condolizza Rice in Jericho during a meeting chaired by President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.
Abbas told the PLO committee that he stressed to Rice the importance of freezing illegal Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian territory, in particular halting the building of the segregation wall labelled the “security wall” by Israeli officials, participation of the other members of the Quartet of international diplomatic mediators in the monitoring system, and lifting the siege imposed on President Arafat, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Sunday.
President Arafat on his part stressed that it is necessary to begin implementing the “roadmap” peace plan quickly, to secure a quick Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Bethlehem and the rest of Palestinian cities and to release Palestinian detainees in the prisons of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), WAFA added.
After flying into Tel Aviv, Rice headed directly to hold talks with a Palestinian delegation headed by PM Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho—the only Palestinian city not under Israeli occupation.
The PLO executive committee member and cabinet affairs minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, foreign minister Nabil Shaath and minister of state for security affairs Mohammed Dahlan also joined the talks at Jericho’s Grand Hotel.
Rice, whose trip follows US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s visit to the region last week, left Washington on Wednesday and spent two days in Britain before travelling to the Middle East.
Rice held “very positive” talks during about four hours of talks with PM Abbas - also known as Abu Mazen, Palestinian officials told the BBC.
The BBC quoted Palestinian officials as saying that Rice had responded positively to their concerns, agreeing on the importance of Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian areas as soon as possible.
The Gaza-Bethlehem deal was reached at a meeting in Tel Aviv on Friday between Mohammed Dahlan and General Amos Gilad, the IOF coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory. The talks were also attended by US envoy John Wolf.
The withdrawal agreement drew a warm welcome from the White House, which said Friday it “applauds” the deal. The UN chief Kofi Annan, the Arab League Amre Mousa and Russia welcomed the deal on Saturday.
President Yasser Arafat’s media adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP "this agreement is the first step toward a total Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as the application of the roadmap."
Abed Rabbo meanwhile said Abu Mazen also urged Rice to press the Israelis to release Palestinian detainees.
Earlier, PM Abbas told a crowd in Ramallah, “There will be no peace or security if even one Palestinian prisoner remains behind bars. Be sure that we will exert our utmost in order to empty all prisons of prisoners.”
The crowd confronted Abbas demanding that he pressure Israel to release the detainees. Many of the protesters were carrying large photographs of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. Coming out of his office to speak to the noisy crowd, Abbas told them he will bring their demands to Rice’s attention during their meeting Saturday.
Media reports said that Abbas asked Rice in particular for American guarantees that Israel will stop assassinating Palestinian activists, otherwise the truce will not hold.
Rice is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other leading ministers on Sunday.
Separately, Israeli and Palestinian field commanders planned on Sunday to renew direct contacts to iron out details for the transfer to the governing Palestinian National Authority (PNA) of security control over parts of the Gaza Strip. The IOF were expected to begin pulling back by Monday.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said Israel was “cautiously optimistic” about the deal, and expected the Palestinian Authority to “keep a lid” on what he termed as “terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.”
An announcement of a Hudna (truce) is supposed to be made simultaneously in Gaza City, in the West Bank city of Ramallah and in Cairo on Monday at the latest.
An Arab League source told AFP that representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have arrived in Cairo and representatives of other factions are expected to join them to announce a three-month ceasefire on Monday at the latest.
"The announcement of the truce will take place Sunday night or Monday morning simultaneously in Cairo and the Palestinian territories," the source, who is close to the Palestinian dossier, said Saturday.
The PNA urged Rice to support the truce.
"Rice said the US administration welcomed the truce," Abed Rabbo told Reuters after the meeting ended. "It should be backed by the Americans or it stands fragile. We urged her to support it.”
Meanwhile Egypt urged Israel to reciprocate the Palestinian move.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said "things are moving in the right direction and positive news is expected.”
Maher, quoted by the official MENA news agency, called on Israel "to respond to the good intentions of the Palestinians by a similar move."
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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