OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 14 November 2003 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei yesterday said that he was ready for a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, but only if it yielded results.
He was responding to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s statement earlier in the day that he expected Qorei and Sharon to meet within 10 days. Israeli media said the meeting would likely take place after Sharon returned from a trip to Italy early next week.
Such a summit could help end months of deadlock over implementation of the US-backed road map.
But Qorei criticized Israel’s continued travel restrictions in many Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “If Israel respects our people and our president and lifts the siege and closure, I think the road will be open for this government to be successful,” Qorei said after the first meeting of his Cabinet.
The Cabinet was sworn in Wednesday, in a ceremony that ended two months of political wrangling over control of the Palestinian security forces.
Shalom said he had already prepared a “positive agenda” that he hoped to implement quickly. He said the plan was “meant to ease on the Palestinians and the Israelis” and lead to substantive negotiations.
The closures have prevented many Palestinians from moving between cities and kept them from reaching schools, offices and hospitals.
Meanwhile, Israel expelled a Palestinian detainee from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, in the third such measure this week.
The Israeli army dropped Taha Dweik, a resident of the West Bank town of Hebron, near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, from where he made his way to Gaza City, Palestinian security sources said.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Supreme Court authorized the army to banish Dweik, who was being held in administrative detention without trial. He is married and has four children.
The army said Dweik was a Hebron leader of the Islamic Jihad group and had in the past spent 12 years in jail.
After the Supreme Court turned down his appeal, “We gave him 1,000 shekels ($200) as well as food and his personal effects,” as he was being transported to Gaza, an army spokesman said.
