- OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (IslamOnline.net
& News Agencies) -- The chairman of Knessetâs influential Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday, November 18, rejected Egyptâs
mediation in clinching a new ceasefire with the Palestinians, labeling
Cairo ãhostile factorä to Israel and the peace process.
-
- "What's happening is particularly serious because
a factor hostile to Israel has entered the Palestinian domain, and it is
equally hostile, in my opinion, to the peace process and that is Egypt,"
said Yuval Steinitz, a deputy from the right-wing Likud party of Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
-
- The comments came one day after Egyptian intelligence
chief Omar Suleiman <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-11/17/article07.shtml3>held
talks with Palestinian leaders, amid expectations that he would float
proposals which would first see the resistance factions such as Hamas declare
a truce with Israel.
-
- "If the new hudna allows Egypt to increase its influence
within the Palestinian Authority and the Îterrorists organizationsâ
such as Hamas then the long term strategic consequences will be more dangerous
for Israel," Steinitz was quoted by AFP as saying.
-
- He also accused Egypt of turning a blind eye to the smuggling
of weapons across its border with the Gaza Strip.
-
- The comments against Egypt, with which Israel has a peace
treaty, were made on Israeli public radio.
-
- Observers believe the statements of the chairman of the
influential Knesset committee undermined efforts of Egypt, also under great
external pressures to help secure a settlement to the long-standing conflict.
-
- Twofold Proposal
-
- The Egyptian intelligence chief was expected to offer
proposals that could then set in train a process culminating in talks between
the Palestinian leadership and Israel and a possible invitation by the
United States for new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei to travel
to Washington, said well-placed sources.
-
- The Egyptian plan is to also address internal security
control dispute between Arafat and Qorei, each is seeking to have an upper
hand for the key security bodies, Palestinian political sources told IslamOnline.net.
-
- In the meanwhile, Arafat reportedly approved plans by
the Egyptian envoy to send a delegation to Gaza for ceasefire talks with
Palestinian factions.
-
- The step would be ensued by his meeting with Israeli
officials to probe the proposal, Qeiss Abu Leila, a politburo member of
the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine told IOL.
-
- Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad suspected
Israelâs possible compliance with the new ceasefire, citing that
the previous similar agreement broke down with Israelâs continued
aggressions and wave of assassinations of Palestinian resistance leaders.
-
- "How can we talk about a new hudna at a time the
U.S. and Israel exercise pressure on Palestinian factions to declare surrender,
" Osama Himdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon told IOL.
-
- ãThe Israelis were the first not to show commitment
to the truce, and Sharon is now plunged into a political crisis that he
could get out of with the new hudna,ä said Khaled Al-Batsh, an Islamic
jihad spokesman.
-
- A ceasefire called by Palestinian resistance factions
last summer <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-08/22/article04.shtml>
- unraveled in August 2003 after Israel assassinated a
number of their leading figures, prompting acts of revenge.
-
- Israel gave no official response to the Egyptian proposal.
-
- ÎComprehensive Ceasefireâ
-
- In the meanwhile, the Palestinian prime minister reiterated
that his government sought to clinch a "comprehensive" ceasefire
with Israel, hoping an expected summit with his Israeli counterpart Ariel
Sharon will be a chance to "open a new chapter" in relations
between the two sides.
-
- "No date has been fixed but there have been serious
discussions about holding a meeting," Qorei told reporters in Ramallah.
-
- "We are not refusing to hold this meeting but we
want to be well prepared so we can follow it by announcing results to the
Palestinian people and send the message that a chapter has been opened".
-
- Sharon said during a visit to Rome late Monday that he
was likely to meet Qorei, who won approval for his new government last
week, in days.
-
- "One can suppose that in the next few days the Israeli
prime minister and the Palestinian prime minister will meet," Sharon
told Jewish leaders.
-
- Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, on a visit to
Brussels, also said Tuesday that talks were imminent.
-
- "Both sides are working on it. It will take a few
more days and it will be scheduled," he told reporters.
-
- Official contacts between the two sides have been frozen
for nearly three months amid the continuing violence of the Palestinian
uprising against Israeli occupation.
-
- Civilians on both sides should be spared, and an agreement
on a ceasefire should be reached with clear conditions defining the commitments
of both parties," Qorei told the session of parliament.
-
- Before being <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-11/12/article05.shtml>
- sworn in on November 12, Qorei said and an agreement
on a ceasefire "should be reached with clear conditions defining the
commitments of both parties".
-
- He also called on Israel to pull out of Palestinian territories
it had reoccupied since the start of the Intifada against Israeli occupation
to allow elections in June 2004.
-
- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-11/18/article02.shtml
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