GAZA CITY/CAIRO, 30 November 2006 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh denied yesterday that talks to form a coalition unity Cabinet had reached an impasse.
“The dialogue on the government is facing difficulties but we are determined to make these efforts for a (national unity) Cabinet succeed,” Haniyeh told reporters in Cairo.
“This dialogue has already made fairly good progress and there is no impasse,” said Haniyeh, who met Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on the second day of his first foreign tour since taking office in March.
An adviser to Palestinian president and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas had said earlier yesterday that the unity talks had run into a stalemate. “Dialogue has hit stalemate. They were frozen after the failure of the last talks in Gaza,” said Nabil Amr.
Amr said sticking points remained over the future Cabinet’s political platform and the distribution of key ministries such as finance and interior. The formation of a unity Cabinet is seen as a crucial step toward the lifting of a crippling financial blockade imposed by Western donors demanding that Hamas recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
A previous Fatah-Hamas agreement last September on a political platform for a unity administration collapsed after Hamas leaders made a series of statements rejecting any recognition of Israel, even implicit.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian mediator was set to tell Israeli leaders yesterday that Hamas demands the release of 1,400 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a soldier Gaza militants seized in June, Palestinian officials said.
Cpl. Gilad Shalit’s capture by Hamas-linked fighters touched off a convulsion of violence that engulfed the Gaza Strip for five months before a shaky truce took effect on Sunday. Israel and President Abbas hope a prisoner swap would build on the truce to help lead the sides back to the negotiating table. The US hopes to add its weight to these efforts in a meeting of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Abbas in the West Bank today.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met in Israel yesterday with Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz and was to meet later in the day with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the hope of advancing a prisoner exchange. But Israeli security and government officials have said the sides were far from a deal.
Peretz welcomed Suleiman ahead of the talks, calling him an influential player in the Middle East.
“I have no doubt that his presence today in this situation is significant. It has significance right now and it will also be significant in the future,” Peretz said.
Israeli officials said the talks with Suleiman would focus on arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza, which is supposed to stop under the truce deal. Israeli military officials are skeptical the smuggling will stop.
Palestinians want Israel to free the 1,400 prisoners, including 400 women and minors, in three phases, said Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Resistance Committees, one of three groups involved in Shalit’s capture. The factions have not yet presented the Egyptians with a list of prisoners they want released, he added.
“Until now, there is no agreement with the Israelis on a prisoner exchange or on the timing,” Abu Mujahed said.
But Kadoura Fares, a former Fatah legislator, said he received personal assurances from Hamas’ political chief, Khaled Meshaal, that Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti would be part of any swap. Barghouti, a West Bank Fatah leader, is serving five life sentences for his involvement in attacks on Israelis.
— With input from agencies
