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Sharon, Abbas to meet in Egypt

By wire services
Published February 3, 2005

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the newly elected president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will hold their first meeting next week at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, according to a statement Wednesday by Sharon's office.

The White House welcomed the development.

"That's an encouraging step that's being taken to build upon the recent discussions between the Israelis and the Palestinians," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "There have been a number of encouraging steps from both parties that show that they want to seize this opportunity before us to move forward."

Tuesday's meeting also will be attended by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who proposed the summit, and Jordan's King Abdullah, said a statement from Mubarak's office carried by Egypt's official Middle East News Agency. The two represent the two Arab countries that have signed peace treaties with Israel and thereby add more weight to the Palestinian voice at the table.

Mubarak in particular has a serious interest in bringing stability to the Gaza Strip, which borders his country, and has pushed the Palestinians to put an end to the chaos there.

Sharon could hardly refuse the invitation of Mubarak, who has publicly praised him and warned the Palestinians that he is the best Israeli peace partner they are likely to get. The Egyptians have also been putting pressure on Palestinian militant groups to agree to a long-term cease-fire, which the groups' Damascus-based leaders discussed with Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo on Tuesday.

Abbas, who was elected last month to succeed Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority, has been trying to cement a permanent cease-fire deal under which radical Palestinian groups such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas would stop attacks against Israelis everywhere. In return, the militants have demanded that Israel release thousands of Palestinian prisoners and stop its policy of targeting militant leaders for assassination, among other gestures.

Israel has rejected making any agreement with militant groups but has said that it will respond in kind to an absence of attacks, leading to a dramatic reduction in violence. But several attacks have occurred in recent days, testing the undeclared and fragile truce, and progress toward a formal cease-fire among the Palestinians seemed to have stalled.

The meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh could give new impetus to the fledgling peace dialogue and build upon a series of mutual gestures that the Israelis and Palestinians have made in recent days. It will come on the heels of a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Sunday and Monday by new U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who could play a role in softening or stiffening the Israeli and Palestinian positions.

There has been no word on whether Rice might attend the summit.

Among the matters expected to be discussed at the summit are a release of hundreds and potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, the lifting of Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the West Bank, and curtailment of Israel's targeted assassination policy. An Israeli decision to turn over security authority in major West Bank cities and towns to Palestinian security forces and coordinating the proposed withdrawal of Israeli troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip this year with the Palestinians will also be on the agenda, the Washington Post reported, quoting an Israeli official who declined to be quoted by name. Israel plans to implement the withdrawal unilaterally.

The return of Egypt's ambassador to Tel Aviv would also likely be discussed, in addition to the deployment of more Egyptian troops along its border with the Gaza Strip to combat the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.

On Wednesday, the Palestinian police announced that they had destroyed an arms smuggling tunnel from the Sinai peninsula of Egypt to Gaza by filling it with water and sand.

Information from the Washington Post, Associated Press and New York Times was used in this report.

[Last modified February 3, 2005, 01:08:13]