Egypt Official, Abbas Meet on Cease-Fire

08/29/2005

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Egypt’s powerful intelligence chief met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday to shore up the strained cease-fire with Israel and discuss freedom of movement across Gaza’s borders once Israel completes its withdrawal from the area.

Omar Suleiman was also due to meet Palestinian militant leaders later Monday to encourage them to abide by a February cease-fire with Israel, Egyptian diplomats said. His arrival in Gaza comes a day after a Palestinian suicide bomber struck in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba, seriously wounding two security guards.

It was the first visit to Gaza by Suleiman, a key adviser to President Hosni Mubarak, since Abbas succeeded the late Yasser Arafat last year. He has met Abbas frequently at his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank and previously has helped mediate security problems between the Palestinians and Israelis.

While Israel expects to complete its Gaza pullout in the coming weeks, issues concerning Palestinian movement in and out of the area remain unresolved.


The Palestinians are seeking Egypt’s help to persuade Israel to allow easy movement across the border with Gaza, lift a sea blockade off the Gaza coast and allow unfettered flights from the airport that the Palestinians intend to rebuild. Israel wants assurances that weapons won’t enter the Palestinian-controlled territory.

Under an agreement with the Israeli government, Egypt will deploy 750 lightly armed troops to replace Israeli forces controlling the crossing into Egypt’s Sinai desert. The Israeli parliament is being summoned from its summer recess this week to approve the accord.

The Egyptians also have agreed to help retrain and reform the overlapping Palestinian security services, which sometimes operate as private armies in Gaza and the West Bank. Egypt has sent an advance 35-member team to assess Palestinian needs, but the training has not yet begun.

Suleiman will make a rare public appearance to the Palestinian parliament Tuesday, reading a speech on behalf of Mubarak.

He is then scheduled to travel to Jerusalem to convey the gist of his talks with Abbas and the militants to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other top officials.


Israel has negotiated long and hard with Egypt on its new role along the border, concerned that lax control would lead to large-scale smuggling of weapons that could be used against Israel. As part of the agreement, Egypt pledged not to give arms to the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli officials said it was unclear whether Suleiman would be able to bridge the differences with the Palestinians on his current trip.

Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz said it could take months to reach an agreement over control of Gaza’s border crossings into Egypt, as well as Palestinian movement between Gaza and the West Bank, which would pass through Israel.

“We want to help them, to give them the opportunity to cross as easy as they can from Gaza to the West Bank - but on the other hand, because of the fact that it’s going to move through Israel, we have to be very careful,” Pines-Paz told reporters. “They have to take into consideration civilians needs and security needs of all people, Israelis and Palestinians.”

Israel also is trying to get the customs checkpoints moved to a point where the Gaza-Egyptian-Israeli borders meet so that it can monitor the traffic.

Israel evacuated civilians from Gaza and dismantled all its 21 Jewish settlements in the coastal strip this month. The army is taking down its bases in preparation to hand over the territory to the Palestinian Authority.