GAZA CITY, 8 February 2005 — Israel and the Palestinians will announce a formal cease-fire when their leaders meet for a landmark summit in Egypt today, officials from both sides said late yesterday. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to meet in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for the highest-level meeting between the sides since a Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000.
Earlier US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday announced the appointment of a US general as security coordinator to monitor Middle East peace moves and an immediate US aid of more than $40 million to the Palestinians.
Rice also said Abbas and Sharon had accepted invitations for separate meetings with US President George W. Bush at the White House in the spring. Sharon and Abbas will meet separately with Bush, Rice announced at the end of her visit to the Middle East. She said she urged both sides to make “maximum effort” to seize the renewed chance for peace. “We will be very active,” Rice said at a joint news conference with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Rice said Gen. William E. Ward, a decorated army officer who served as head of a NATO force in Bosnia, has been chosen for the job of security coordinator. She said Ward, who was also posted in Germany, Somalia and Egypt, would visit the Middle East in coming weeks and report directly to her.
Ward will monitor compliance with security requirements, including reform of the Palestinian security forces, Rice said. She stressed that the United States prefers that Israel and the Palestinians negotiate with each other directly.
Israel in the past has balked at international monitors, but a top Sharon aide said Ward would be welcome. “This is someone who will be like a referee, if there is a need ... on to mediate and prevent a crisis,” said the aide, Raanan Gissin. “The American involvement will increase as progress is made.”
Rice praised Abbas, saying he was following through on his mandate to restore calm in the Palestinian areas and that he had helped jump-start peace efforts with Israel.
At the start of her two-day swing through the Middle East, Rice met with Israeli leaders, including Sharon. Rice said she told the Israelis that they must refrain from taking unilateral actions that would prejudge the outcome of future peace negotiations. She singled out Jerusalem, claimed by both sides as a capital, and specifically referred to recent Israeli efforts to seize Jerusalem land owned by West Bank Palestinians. Israel’s attorney general has since ordered the policy stopped, and Rice said yesterday she was pleased.
Rice said in the next three months, the Palestinian Authority would receive more than $40 million in US aid to help create jobs and rebuild the Palestinian infrastructure. — Additional input from agencies
