Abbas, Sharon announce truce

The Quartet summit which was held in Sharm al-Sheikh was concluded on Tuesday with the announcement made by the chairman of the Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to halt "acts of violence" each against the other.

In a speech before the open session of the summit, Abbas announced his agreement with Sharon "to halt all acts of violence against the Palestinians and the Israelis, wherever they exist." Abbas added, the calm our lands will witness as from today is the beginning of a new phase for peace and the hope." He considered that Sharm al-Sheikh is considered an implementation for the first articles of the Roadmap peace plan, describing it as a basic step ensuring a new opportunity to that the peace process will restore back its impetus and the Israeli and Palestinian peoples to restore back confidence and hope to the possibility of achieving peace."

But Abbas admitted differences over issues including the prisoners and the settlements as well as the wall of separation, noting that the agreement to cease fire marks the beginning to bridge the gap of differences between the two sides.