Abbas 'within reach' of new Hamas ceasefire deal
Independent UK
Date: 01-21-05
By Donald Macintyre in Gaza
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, is planning to mobilise US and other foreign leaders behind an effort to ensure that Israel reciprocates the ceasefire he hopes to secure with militant armed factions this weekend.
Allies of Mr Abbas said that he will leave Gaza tomorrow within reach of an agreement with Hamas and Islamic Jihad on terms for a halt to the attacks they have been mounting against Israel since the present uprising began in September 2000.
But if the factions agree, Mr Abbas will then seek to entrench the ceasefire by asking the US, EU and Egypt to seek equally firm promises from Israel that it will play its part in ensuring that it will not collapse amid mutual recrimination, as did the short-lived truce he negotiated as Prime Minister in the summer of 2003.
The plan was disclosed here yesterday by Ziad Abu Amr, a close ally of Mr Abbas and the Palestinian Legislative Council member who has been mediating between the President and the armed factions in the ceasefire talks. Saying there was a new "sense of hope" in the region, Dr Amr said: "If Israel wants to help, it can help. If it wants to spoil it, it can spoil it."
Palestinian security servicemen and police deployed in northern Gaza yesterday in the first sign of an effort to curb militant activity, searching cars at a checkpoint outside Beit Hanou near the main Erez crossing into the Strip. There were no rocket or mortar attacks launched by Palestinian militants here for the second successive day.
In a positive response to Palestinian requests at a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian commanders, Israel agreed this week not to shoot at security personnel patrolling the border area.
Although Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, has said that Israel will respond to "quiet with quiet", the factions claim that Israel broke the 2003 ceasefire by continuing military operations - including targeted killings of militants. Dr Amr said that the "world is watching" Mr Abbas's attempts to secure a halt to armed conflict and warned that if Israel did not "respond" it "will definitely undermine the ceasefire".
In a rare insight into the talks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Dr Amr said that it had been swiftly agreed that the terms for any "final status" settlement would be firmly based on a two-state solution based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital. While Hamas has depicted itself as seeking guarantees that Mr Abbas is not reneging on principles held by Yasser Arafat, it has thus opted to pursue a two-state solution rather than its theoretical goal of eliminating the state of Israel.
Dr Amr said that Mr Abbas had also proposed a new electoral system from June in which between 30 and 50 per cent of seats in the new Palestinian Legislative Council will be chosen proportionally rather than on a constituency first-past-the-post basis. Hamas, apparently keen to switch from a military to a political track, has been seeking the change.
In response to the argument by some Israeli officials that Mr Abbas should be risking a civil war by a military confrontation with Hamas, rather than seeking a voluntary ceasefire, Dr Amr said that a much "stronger" solution would be for Hamas to change its strategy as a result of "a political decision".
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