Egypt trying to bring Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire

News, October 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Jordan Times, Tuesday, October 28, 2003

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has resumed its efforts to persuade Palestinian groups to halt their attacks on Israelis, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said Monday. The resumption of the Egyptian mediation came in response to a request by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, who visited Cairo last week, the officials said.

"The situation is getting out of control and it is about time that something is done to stop it," an Egyptian official told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He said Egypt will try to arrange for a new ceasefire, similar to the one it persuaded groups to declare earlier this year. Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel, is seen as a key Arab moderate and peace mediator. A Palestinian official in Cairo said Qureia promised the Egyptians that he will take part in the Egyptian-sponsored talks with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniyeh said Qureia had offered talks towards a new ceasefire with Israel, and Hamas accepted.

"Hamas is preparing for this meeting," he said, adding that no date has been set.

Osama Hamdan, a spokesman for Hamas in Lebanon, confirmed that the resistance organization was contacted by Egypt but said the contacts haven't reached the level of a new dialogue about a truce. "I think there are too many obstacles which need to be overcome," he said.

Late Sunday, Qureia confirmed that he favours talks with Hamas, responsible for most of the 104 suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis in three years of conflict.

Qureia has been pushing for ceasefire talks since taking office at the head of a Yasser Arafat-appointed emergency government earlier this month. On Wednesday, Qureia made a surprise visit to Egypt hours before US State Secretary Colin Powell arrived for talks with Egyptian leaders on the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories.

Qureia did not meet with Powell but sat down with the highest-ranking US official he has met since becoming prime minister — top Powell aide William Burns. He called on the Americans to push for implementation of the roadmap. Egyptian officials, including President Hosni Mubarak, have recently blamed both the Palestinians and the Israelis for the deadlock in the Mideast peace process, a departure from their traditional stance of not blaming or criticising the Palestinians.

A truce by the Palestinian groups would amount to a breakthrough for the so-called "roadmap" plan laid down by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. The process envisages a Palestinian state by 2005. Israel has repeatedly said it will not implement the plan until the violence ends. A unilateral truce declared by Palestinian resistance organizations on June 29 was negotiated through Egyptian mediation, but broke down several weeks later when the Sharon Israeli government resumed its assassination of Palestinian leaders. Qureia and his predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas, have held talks with the groups about halting attacks voluntarily, but so far to no avail. The groups want guarantees that Israel stop its military strikes, a promise Israel has refused to make.

The resistance organizations are said to be under pressure from Arab governments who feel the continuation of violence during an approaching elections year in the United States might divert the administration's attention away from Middle East problems. Washington has said it is still committed to the roadmap.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

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