Abbas-Sharon aides try to salvage key summit
A deadlock over Israeli troop withdrawals in the West Bank and further releases of Palestinian prisoners clouded prospects today that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would meet this week for the first time since Israel’s Gaza Strip pullout.
On the Gaza-Israel border, meanwhile, Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinians who had crawled toward the security border fence with a bag. The army said it didn’t know what was in the bag, but Palestinian security officials said the three were unarmed.
In preparing the Sharon-Abbas meeting, senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators failed to bridge the differences in two sets of talks, but agreed to meet one last time today. The Sharon-Abbas talks are tentatively set for tomorrow.
Although both sides would benefit from a summit showing progress toward peace after the Gaza pullout, Israel balked at making gestures it said would harm its security.
The Palestinians want Israel to honour its commitment to turn over four more West Bank towns to Palestinian control, and to release some of the more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners it is holding.
Israel appeared prepared to free some prisoners, but not enough to satisfy the Palestinians. And yesterday, the Defence Ministry said Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz would not agree to transfer control of any West Bank towns.
Israel agreed to the pullback as part of a February ceasefire. But the process stalled after two towns, Jericho and Tulkarem, were handed over, with Israel accusing the Palestinians of failing to take action against militants in those towns. Israel later retook Tulkarem after a suicide bomber from the area attacked an Israeli city.
Despite the differences, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat acknowledged that the summit might not be held tomorrow, but said there was no crisis. “Even if we move the summit from tomorrow, it is a positive atmosphere, and it’s an attempt to have a successful summit,” he said today.
Palestinians said there was no point in a summit just for the pictures and that concrete results were needed. Abbas himself came under criticism in 2004 when he was prime minister under the late Yasser Arafat for meeting Sharon but coming away empty-handed.
Abbas is to travel to Washington later this month to meet with US President George Bush, and he would be reluctant to arrive without any concrete achievements from a meeting with Sharon.
Sharon told his Cabinet yesterday that he didn’t know if the meeting would take place, stressing that he will not make moves that he believes threaten Israel’s security.
“There are gestures that Israel can and will make, and there are gestures that it won’t,” he said, according to meeting participants.
The two sides have made progress on other Palestinian demands in recent days, with a compromise possibly shaping up on ropening Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Israel closed the Rafah terminal – the main exit out of Gaza – before the withdrawal. The Palestinians say reopening the border is essential for Gaza’s ravaged economy.
Israel reopened a cargo crossing on its border with Gaza yesterday, and Palestinians said this would alleviate a shortage of fruit and dairy products in the territory. The Karni passage and others with the Palestinian area had been closed almost continuously since September 24 after dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.
