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Palestinians Canât Agree on Truce Offer
Almost as much of a surprise as "Mugabe Quits Commonwealth." EFL. CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Palestinians failed to agree on a truce offer to Israel on Sunday after three days of talks, setting back the Palestinian prime ministerâs Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out most suicide attacks against Israel, resisted intense pressure from Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and the top Egyptian mediator and refused a full cease-fire. "No! And if you keep badgering us weâll kill you." "Okay, I tried. So much for intense pressure." The two groups would agree only to a limited truce, ending attacks on civilians in Israel but not on Jewish settlers or Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel said it would accept only a comprehensive halt. "Thereâs no half-way cease-fire," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. How the ones in the past, where you honored the truce and the Paleos kept killing? Sounds half-way to me. Egypt had called together the Palestinian factions - more than a dozen, ranging from Yasser Arafatâs Fatah movement to the Islamic groups and smaller leftist movements - in hopes of producing a halt to all attacks. Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman wanted to present the truce to Washington next week in a broad proposal that could win U.S. backing and put pressure on Israel. But Qureia, who joined the talks Sunday in the hopes of bridging the gap, left the Egyptian capital, and several delegates acknowledged the talks produced no concrete results. Paleos never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. "There are disagreements about the nature of a cease-fire," Maher Taher, a senior delegate for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told The Associated Press. "The factions have different positions on the issue." Even when Qureia and Suleiman lay on the pressure in a three-hour meeting Sunday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad refused to buckle in their rejection of the broad halt. "We told you, Qureia, stop badgering us!" "Okay, okay already!" "Hamas is not ready to make a comprehensive cease-fire. This is final," senior Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal said after talks ended Sunday. The militant factions also rejected giving Qureia authority to speak for them in any negotiations with Israel. "We are not ready to give them authorization to sign a new agreement," Nazzal said. "It was difficult for us and other factions to accept a new truce without guarantees from the Israeli side, because the previous truce failed in the same way, because of no Israeli guarantees," said Nafez Azzam, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza. And yes, his lips fell off. The Cairo session "ended with the hope of holding another meeting but it hasnât been agreed on a date," Azzam said. Maybe they could hold it in Damascus, and give the Israelis a really irresistible target. In exchange for the full truce, Egypt and Fatah were demanding that Israel stop building settlements, pull its troops out of Palestinian areas re-occupied during the uprising and halt construction of its so-called security barrier along the borders with Palestinian areas, which juts into Palestinian land. Essentially, their plan would have met much of the criteria of the "road map." By the Israelis. Posted by: Steve White 2003-12-08 |
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