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Abbas ready to work with Israelis on Gaza
 Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israel's recent killings of Palestinians violated a February agreement, but that he was still willing to cooperate with Israel's planned summer pullout from the Gaza Strip. "It's unfortunate that there are many violations to the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement," Abbas told reporters on arrival from Egypt, where he held talks with President Hosni Mubarak.He did not directly name Israel, but said the violations of the February accord were manifested in the killings of three Palestinians in Rafah, a Gaza Strip crossing point with Egypt, the arrests of activists in the Palestinian territories and the beating of police officers in the West Bank town of Hebron. Abbas met separately with Jordanian Prime Minister Adnan Badran and Jordan's King Abdullah II, who stressed that an Israeli pullout from Gaza "must be followed by a withdrawal from the West Bank in line with the 'road map,'" according to a palace statement. Abdullah said certain issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must be left until final status negotiations. He did not elaborate but appeared to hint at crucial issues, like the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of traditionally Arab part of Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. "Imposing solutions without the participation of concerned parties will not serve peace and will not lead to practical results accepted by all," added Abdullah, underlining concern that a future settlement about refugees may ignore Jordanian interests. Jordan is the largest host of 1.7 million Palestinians refugees and their dependents displaced in 1967 and an earlier Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Posted by: Fred 2005-04-18 |
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