RAMALLAH, West Bank, 5 February 2005 — Palestinians urged Israel yesterday to expand a prisoner release to ensure the success of the forthcoming summit as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused the Palestinians of doing little to combat “terror.”
Israel disappointed the Palestinian leadership by refusing to include those jailed for deadly attacks among the 900 prisoners whom Prime Minister Sharon and top Cabinet ministers agreed on Thursday to release in a goodwill gesture.
But the summit itself, scheduled for Tuesday between Sharon and new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, appeared set to go ahead.
“Israel stuck to its criteria of not releasing those it described as having ‘blood on their hands’,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said after talks with Israeli officials on the issue broke up without agreement late on Thursday.
“That means that all the prisoners who were jailed before (interim peace deals) in 1993 will not be released,” he said.
Freedom for some 8,000 prisoners, especially militants and veteran inmates, is key to Abbas’s aim of consolidating power, ending bloodshed and reviving a US-backed peace “road map” charting mutual steps to Palestinian statehood.
If unresolved as the summit draws nearer, the prisoners issue could bode large in meetings new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to hold with Sharon and Abbas during a visit to the region tomorrow and Monday.
During deliberations on Thursday on a confidence-building package for the Palestinians, Sharon faced strong opposition from several Cabinet members to suggestions by other ministers to bend the terms for release, political sources said.
Rice, in London, said efforts to achieve Middle East peace were now “moving effectively” and cited Abbas’ views on “the necessity to have a peaceful resolution” of the conflict. “The fact is, though, that there will have to be action to make certain that terrorists cannot continue to frustrate both his plans and to endanger the lives of Israelis,” she told a news conference.
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said in remarks published yesterday that the Palestinian group was observing restraint to give truce talks a chance and linked the success of next week’s Middle East summit to a halt in Israeli attacks.
Meanwhile, Sharon said in a telephone conversation with his Norwegian counterpart Kjell Magne Bondevik yesterday, “The Palestinian side hasn’t done a thing except to deploy its forces in Gaza before taking significant steps in the war on terror.”
Any return to the troubled Middle East peace road map would only occur “after the Palestinians stop terror activities, break up the terror infrastructure and carry out governmental reforms,” Sharon said.
