Israel, Palestinians to announce ceasefire at Mideast summit
30 minutes ago
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli and Palestinian leaders will announce a ceasefire at their landmark summit in Egypt, aiming to end four years of violence and stoking hopes of a historic breakthrough in the peace process.
"The summit will be the occasion to announce a mutual and total ceasefire," Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said in Gaza City following two weeks of talks between the two sides in the lead-up to the summit.
A source in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said: "During the summit, Israel will announce an end to military operations while the Palestinians will declare a ceasefire.
"If the terrorist attacks and violence cease, there will be no need for us to launch operations, because calm responds to calm."
The announcements came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice unveiled the the appointment of a new US security pointman for the Middle East and hailed what she called the "most promising moment for progress ... in recent years".
Tuesday's meeting between Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will be the first between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in over four years.
The summit, to be hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will mark "the resumption of official ties between Israel and the Palestinians," Erakat said.
Monday's announcements mean the summit should end with a joint declaration drawing a line under the Palestinian uprising which erupted in September 2000 and has claimed more than 4,700 lives.
Any such communique is also expected to include agreements on issues such as the transfer of security control in parts of the West Bank.
Encouraged by the moderate leadership of Abbas, who was elected on January 9 to succeed the late Yasser Arafat, Israel has taken steps to forge a rapprochement with the new leader after shunning his predecessor. But the two sides have not yet patched up some of their thorniest differences, such as Israel's controversial West Bank security fence, Israeli settlement activity and the closure of Palestinian groups in east Jerusalem. "The discussions (on all these matters) will take place during the summit and afterwards," Erakat said.
"The positive results that we have concluded at the end of two weeks of negotiations will be announced at the summit," Abbas said after talks with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, without specifically referring to a ceasefire.
Rice named a three-star general to help coordinate security efforts and announced planned White House summits for both sides as she held talks with Abbas in Ramallah in a renewed push for peace.
Rice said Washington had named Lieutenant General William Ward, deputy commander of the US Army Europe to help the Palestinians clamp down on attacks by militants, a key condition set by Israel for negotiations on an eventual Palestinian state. "The United States is determined to do all that we can to take advantage of this moment of opportunity in the weeks and months ahead," she said.
In another show of support for Abbas, Rice announced plans to fast-track more than 40 million dollars for the Palestinian Authority over the next 90 days to fund education, health care and other projects. She cited as immediate priorities the Palestinians' need to reform their security apparatus and take on the militants, and Israel's need to dismantle certain settlements and outposts, and take down checkpoints wherever possible. "We are very clear that the parties need to live up to their obligations," Rice told reporters before leaving the Middle East and resuming an eight-nation tour of Europe.
Rice also announced Sharon and Abbas would come to Washington for separate talks with President George W. Bush, who said in Washington he was "impressed" by the new Palestinian leader.
No dates were set for the visits, which will be held after an international conference on Palestinian reforms and statehood scheduled to be held in London on March 1.
However amid the growing optimism, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom warned that a ceasefire by Palestinian militant groups was "not enough" and demanded the Palestinian leadership move decisively to disarm them once and for all. "We must be clear, a ceasefire is not enough," he said. The Palestinians "must act to deny the terrorists their capacity to strike".
An official insisted after the ceasefire announcement that the Israeli military would preserve the right to "liquidate a human bomb" -- in other words thwart a suspected Palestinian suicide bomber on the verge of committing an attack.
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