Abbas demands final status talks or nothing as he heads to Egypt summit
Friday, 22 June 2007
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Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, is demanding that next Monday's scheduled summit with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, contains a discussion over "final status" talks on a future Palestinian state, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
The two leaders are scheduled to meet in Sharm el Sheikh on Monday at an Arab-Israel summit designed to boost the Western-backed strategy of shoring-up Mr Abbas in the West Bank while isolating Hamas in Gaza.
Mr Abbas is reportedly insisting that the summit, hosted by Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, will be fruitless if it does not set in train a process aimed at a final resolution of the key issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said: "We need to deliver the end of occupation, a Palestinian state. If we don't have hope, Hamas will export despair to the people."
Mr Olmert is expected to start releasing about $400m (£200m) of revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority, but which was withheld since Hamas took office after being elected in January 2005. The money is not intended to reach officials working for the Hamas administration in Gaza, which Mr Abbas sees himself as having outlawed.
Egypt and Jordan, which is due to be represented at the summit by King Abdullah, have announced their backing for the new administration, which - thanks to a decree issued by Mr Abbas by-passing the Palestinian basic law - will not require monthly ratification by the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament.
Israeli officials indicated that Mr Olmert would also hold out the prospect of a limited easing of some restrictions on movement of Palestinian people and goods. At the same time, he will suggest he is prepared to go significantly further if Mr Abbas and the new administration succeed in cracking down on Hamas activists in the West Bank. The Palestinians are arguing that the dismantling of checkpoints is an immediate priority if a 40 per cent slump in Palestinian GDP since 1999 is to be reversed.
The implication is that Israel might be prepared to curb raids aimed at hunting militants in the West Bank and pull back its troops if Mr Abbas and his Fatah-dominated forces - perhaps augmented by Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militants - are prepared to maintain what Israel would consider a sufficiently high level of security.
The Palestinian Liberation Organisation executive - which does not include Hamas and in which Fatah is the single largest group - backed the formation of the emergency government yesterday and called for the dissolution of all militias. While this applies in theory to the al-Aqsa brigades, it could pave the way for their incorporation into the salaried security services.
Mr Mubarak's hosting of the summit underlines Egypt's support for the new Palestinian cabinet in Ramallah. An official of the ruling National Democratic Party in Cairo, Ali Eldin Helal, declared: "Its not in Egypt's interests [to permit] the presence of a religious state on its borders, and it will do its best to end such a presence." Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for Ismail Haniyeh, who has refused to accept his dismissal as Prime Minister, denied in Gaza this week that Hamas had such an intention.
The new Ramallah authority has already frozen funds to some Gaza ministerial offices and said new passports issued there were invalid. Mustafa Barghouti, the former information minister who refused to join the new government, criticised its basis yesterday and added: "I believe in unity, democracy and the rule of law. The only way out now is to have early elections."
