With a verbal cease-fire deal in hand, Israeli and Palestinian leaders met at a Mideast summit Tuesday for face-to-face talks and goodwill gestures aimed at ending four years of violence and entering a new era of peace talks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) met with Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Also present at the summit are Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the initiator and host of the summit and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Sharon and Abbas smiled broadly as they leaned across a long white table to shake hands as their meeting started - their first since Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat after his death in November.
"Israel is willing to go very far and we're going to introduce today a package of confidence-building measures, incentives, to the Palestinians so that they could start this long journey on the road to peace," said Ra'anan Gissin, a top Sharon adviser. "But there's one thing that must be made very clear ... there will be no flexibility whatsoever, no compromise whatsoever on fighting terrorism."
The Israeli prime minister first met with President Mubarak, for the first time since Sharon's election in 2001, and later met with Abbas. According to Israeli sources, Abbas will announce a cease-fire at the summit, while Sharon will promise to end Israeli military operations in the occupied territories if the "Palestinian violence" stops.
According to Israeli media, during the meetings, Sharon invited Mubarak and King Abdullah to visit Israel.
A Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip struck a cautionary note, saying the group would evaluate the summit before committing itself to halting its "campaign of violence". "We agreed before with Mahmoud Abbas that if he succeeds to achieve our national goals, he should come back to the Palestinian factions to discuss the issue, and after that we will decide our stand," Mahmoud Zahar said.
Meanwhile, in Israel, police stepped up the alert level throughout the country Tuesday, due to numerous intelligence warnings of possible attempts to disrupt the summit with an attack inside Israel. Police also heightened their deployment and established mobile checkpoints on various roads.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
