Egypt invites Mideast leaders to summit

FE Team | Published: June 22, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

RAMALLAH, Jun 21 (AP): Closing ranks against Hamas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders to a peace summit next week, Palestinian officials said Thursday.
The regional gathering is the biggest show of support yet by moderate Arab states for beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his bitter showdown with the Islamic militants, who took control of Gaza by force last week.
Mubarak has invited Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Jordan's King Abdullah to the summit, to be held early next week in Egypt, said Abbas aides Saeb Erekat and Yasser Abed Rabbo. Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said nothing has been finalised.
At the meeting, Abbas will call for a resumption of peace talks with Israel, arguing that only progress toward Palestinian statehood can serve as a true buffer against Hamas, Erekat said.
"The most important thing to realise is that time is of the essence," Erekat 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."
As immediate steps, Abbas will ask Israel to remove West Bank checkpoints that disrupt daily life and trade, and to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax funds Israel froze after Hamas came to power last year.
In Washington this week, Olmert said he would propose to his Cabinet Sunday that it unlock frozen funds, thought he did not say how much money he thought Israel should free. Israel is holding about $550 million in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.
Despite the talk about peace, however, the Hamas takeover has dealt a setback to statehood efforts, with the Islamic militants in charge of Gaza and Abbas in charge of the West Bank.
Gaza militants fired nine rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot Wednesday, slightly injuring one person. Hours earlier, Israeli troops backed by tanks and armored vehicles fatally shot four militants.
Mahmoud Zahar, the man widely believed to be leading Gaza's new Hamas rulers, said Wednesday his group would be open to a cease-fire with Israel if the army halted its activities there and in the West Bank. He said Hamas was capable of halting the frequent rocket attacks out of Gaza. "But nobody will be the protector of the Israeli border," he told The Associated Press.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, a top Palestine Liberation Organisation body, the Palestine National Council, was meeting for a second day Thursday. It was weighing Abbas' appeal to approve his most recent steps against Hamas, including firing the militants from the government and establishing an emergency Cabinet of moderates.
Technically, the Palestinian legislature would have to approve the emergency government after a month. However, it is controlled by Hamas and has been paralyzed for months, following Israel's arrest of most Hamas legislators.