Sharon's conditions makes for a failed summit with Abbas
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 6/22/2005

The summit which brought together the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in the western part of occupied Jerusalem was a great failure over its inability to approve certain agreements to give the peace process a push forward.

Sharon that the Palestinian authorities control the Palestinian resistance organization, while Abbas insisted on the release of detainees and permitting the Palestinian workers to get into Israel, and to hand over other cities of the West Bank to the Palestinian authority, and permitting building of a port in Gaza and renovating its airport.

Frustrated over the results of the summit, Abbas refrained from convening a press conference in Ramullah after his return back, while the conference was held by his prime minister who described the meeting as difficult and did not meet expectations.

Ahmad Qurei' said in the press conference "we did not get enough answers to the issues we had raised." He cited several issues including reopening of Gaza airport, releasing more Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli jails.

In its direct comments on the negotiations, the Islamic resistance movement (Hamas) announced that the Palestinian people did not pin great hopes on the summit.

The spokesman for the movement Mushir al-Masri said the "the Israeli side wants to exploit these meetings to improve its image in front of the world and practice more pressures on the Palestinian authority to carry out security missions, Israel had already failed at."

Previous Stories:
  On the Israeli withdrawal from Jenin   (6/16/2005)
  Qidwa calls for pressure on Israel   (6/10/2005)
  Jericho International Seminar II cancelled   (6/8/2005)

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