Israelis, Arabs Meeting to Shore Up Abbas

06/25/2007

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 25, 2007


CAIRO, June 24 -- Israel and its Arab neighbors readied for a summit Monday to explore restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in an attempt to shore up the emergency government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert headed to the meeting at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with a message that his government would support Abbas, whose administration now appears limited to the West Bank. The Palestinian leader swore in a new cabinet on June 17 after fighting in the Gaza Strip in which the rival Hamas movement overwhelmed security forces loyal to Abbas's Fatah party and effectively severed political links between the two Palestinian territories.

"We will attempt in a sober and cautious manner to take advantage of the opportunities created as a result of the recent events in the Gaza Strip, in order to build a diplomatic process with the Palestinians," Olmert told reporters in Jerusalem on Sunday. He spoke in advance of a cabinet meeting in which Israeli ministers voted to release hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Palestinian tax revenue, a move Israeli officials said was designed to bolster Abbas's administration.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is hosting the one-day summit, which brings Abbas and Olmert together with Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, leaders of the only two Arab countries to have signed peace accords with Israel. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is expected to arrive later this week, after Olmert's departure, for talks with Mubarak.

Arab officials, buffeted by violence in Iraq and Lebanon and tensions with Iran, said the summit offered little chance of an Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough.

"Right now, we're just going through so many events and contradictions, and there is a vacuum of leadership" internationally, said one Saudi official. "Events are coming faster than our ability to respond," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In Cairo, an official with the 22-member Arab League said the break between Fatah and Hamas was a sign that Palestinian society was breaking apart in the absence of peace talks.

"This region is not on a peace footing; it's on a war footing," said Hesham Youssef, cabinet chief for the Arab League. "We have to work to put this region on the right track and this region cannot be on the right track without a viable peace process." Israeli and Palestinian leaders last attempted to negotiate a comprehensive peace plan in January 2001.

In the 10 days since Hamas completed its military conquest of Gaza, Israeli officials and international donors have sought to improve the standing of Abbas, with Egypt and Jordan asserting that his administration is the only legitimate Palestinian government.

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