EGYPT: Palestinian President, EU and US envoys meet with Egyptian President and head of Arab League in effort to restart Middle East Peace Process

The Palestinian president and representatives of the so-called "Quartet" of Middle East peacemakers met with Egyptian and Arab League officials in Cairo on Wednesday (November 15) in an effort to restart the moribund Middle East peace process. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa. The meetings were part of an attempt to first stabilize the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, which has once more reached a crescendo with the killing of 19 Palestinian civilians in an Israeli strike on the Palestinian village of Beit Hanoun in Gaza on November 8. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed hundreds of Palestinians, half of them civilians, since it began over the summer, while internal fighting also continues between the ruling Islamist Hamas party, and Abbas's Fatah party. Efforts to form a Palestinian unity government have so far failed. The U.S. and Israel have led a boycott of Hamas insisting that the group recognise Israel and renounce violence before they will talk to it. Also today in Cairo, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch met Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League, who said that some common ground had been established. "We covered the situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis including the results of the visit of Prime Minister Olmert to the United States, and how we see the way forward to try and restore a path toward the vision that we all share -- trying to have peace built on two states living side by side in peace and security," said Welch. Welch was to represent the U.S. at a meeting later today of the Quartet - the U.S., European Union, Russia and the UN. On November 12 Arab League foreign ministers called for the convening of an international peace summit to end the Arab-Israeli conflict after meeting in emergency session in response to Israel's attack on Beit Hanoun. The United States and Israel have yet to agree to such a summit. Today Moussa said he conveyed the Arab League's views to Welch. "I explained the Arab position and I heard also the American position and how they see things. Generally there is an agreement that the efforts to revive the peace process have to be intensified," he said. At the emergency Arab League meeting Arab ministers also pledged to break financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. Abbas's meeting comes amidst continued Egyptian efforts to mediate an exchange of prisoners between Israel and the Palestinians that would see a captured Israeli soldier exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The ruling Islamic group Hamas said today that a planned Palestinian unity government would not recognize Israel or accept a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict as demanded by Israel and the United States. The stance could undercut Palestinian efforts to ease a Western economic boycott by forming a unity cabinet more acceptable to the West. Moussa also met with EU envoy, Mark Otte at the Arab League headquarters. "The envoys to the Quartet are meeting later on, in a couple of hours. The efforts to find an avenue to first of all tranquillise and stabilize the situation and then to return to the peace track are gathering once again the attention of the international community, fortunately or unfortunately," said Otte. The United States and its partners in the Quartet of Middle East mediators imposed the boycott to pressure Hamas, which took office in March, to recognise Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept existing peace deals.

ITN Source | November 15, 2006

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