CAIRO, 15 March 2005 — Palestinian group leaders said yesterday they were ready to offer a formal cease-fire in their campaign against Israel, tied to a timetable for Israel releasing prisoners and pulling out of Palestinian towns. In effect, the militant factions would extend and formalize the existing de facto cease-fire but make clear to Israel that it must respond if the truce is to last, officials said.
“We approve a conditional truce. We will wait to see what the Israelis will offer and the guarantees that we will get. We have not agreed on a specified timeframe for the truce but once we get all these we will study them and declare our decision,” added West Bank Hamas leader Hassan Youssef.
“We can come out with a cease-fire agreement but we will not enter a truce with no guarantees when there are 8,000 prisoners behind Israeli bars,” added another senior Hamas official, in Cairo for talks with the Palestinian Authority.
The exact wording of the Palestinian offer will be at the center of debate when 13 Palestinian factions meet the Palestinian Authority in Cairo starting this evening.
But any declaration by all the factions would be an advance on the current arrangements — a promise by the Palestinian Authority that Palestinians will not attack Israelis, coupled with an informal agreement that the militants will not attack as long as the Israelis leave them alone.
Anwar Abu Taha, a senior official of the second largest group Islamic Jihad, told Reuters that the truce must go hand-in-hand with the timetable for Israeli actions.
“We are not talking about a free or unconditional truce. There has to be a timetable agreed by all Palestinian factions ... Israel must halt all military assaults and start releasing all Palestinian prisoners as well as pulling out from Palestinian areas,” he said.
Sources at the Foreign Ministry said Egypt had already proposed a one-year truce. However, they did not elaborate on the conditions of the cease-fire.
A senior official from the Democratic Front of the Liberation of Palestine told Arab News that the Palestinian groups would not agree on the cease-fire if Israel does not free the 800 Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hopes to win backing from the groups for the cease-fire at the Cairo talks.
“We are in Cairo to declare a cease-fire. All factions see it as possible,” Suleiman Fahd from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine told Reuters.
Hussam Arafat, a member of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), said the Egyptians had drafted a paper for discussion at the talks.
“Egypt proposes a one-year truce. We were not told of any conditions,” he told Reuters.
Abbas has said he is confident of securing the agreement of the militants as a move toward reviving negotiations with Israel on a final peace agreement and Palestinian statehood.
Hopes for peace in the Middle East have grown since Abbas replaced late leader Yasser Arafat and agreed the cease-fire.
Sources at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al Shara will attend the talks.
Abbas told the Israeli Channel One that a cease-fire agreement will be announced by all the Palestinian factions at the finial session of Cairo’s negotiations. “We are going to Cairo to announce a cease-fire to which all the Palestinian factions will be committed and this will give the peace negotiations a chance to go in the right directions,” Abbas said.
In another development, Egypt’s new ambassador to Israel, Mohamed Assem Ibrahim reached Tel Aviv, high ranking officials told Arab News yesterday.
The return of the Egyptian ambassador to Israel after nearly a five-year absence marks an improvement in the relations between the two countries. Ibrahim was Egypt’s first Ambassador to Khartoum since 1995.
