Cairo summit condemn Israel, relieve Palestinian officials
Palestinian officials welcomed the outcome of the three-way summit meeting in Cairo between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, King Hussein of Jordan and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The summit and the results, said one official in Ramallah, had reiterated the support both Egypt and Jordan have extended to the Palestinian government. The three leaders who met for a few hours in Cairo on Sunday strongly condemned Israel's decision to enlarge the municipal boundaries of the city of Jerusalem and considered the move an open violation of the signed accords between the Palestinian government and Israel. They also warned Israel against the outbreak of violent clashes because of the continued impasse in the peace talks.
President Arafat's special advisor on Israeli affairs, Ahmed Tibi, said the summit in Cairo came to underline the importance of Arab coordination efforts to confront Israel's policies in the region and its refusal to implement the peace accords it signed with the PLO.
Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman said the summit was an attempt of what he termed as the Arab peace front to get together and look into ways to salvage the peace process. Now, said Abdul Rahman, there is an attempt either to hold a wider summit or a smaller one and "all these are attempts by the Arab side to respond to the Israeli intransigence." However, Abdul Rahman called for more serious measure to be taken against Israel. "The forms of response did not yet give the required results. What is required is to freeze relations with Israel, what is required is to stop diplomatic ties with Israel and to obstruct everything with Israel until it commits to the peace process," he said. Abdul Rahman said that the reality on the ground is that of an occupation of settlement and of a cancer tearing apart the Palestinian territory. "This reality is not confronted by a genuine Arab consciousness. What we require is not a vague position but a clear strong stance against this reality. He said the Netanyahu government is not a government of peace and "therefore it should not be dealt with as a government of peace. "This government is committed to settlement, expansion, and land theft, Judaization of Jerusalem and destroying our history," he said.
Meanwhile, Colonel Mohammed Dahlan, commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip, denied allegations by Israel that the siege the Palestinian security forces imposed on the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip last Thursday and Friday was premeditated and blamed Israel for not honoring the Taba Accords which spoke in detail about the right of the Palestinians to use all the roads in the Gaza Strips. Speaking to reporters after he toured the Gaza Strip Sunday morning, Dahlan said the situation in the Palestinian territories is as volatile as it was on the eve of the Palestinian uprising against Israel in December 1987. "Any incident like the car accident which triggered the uprising can repeat itself in these days and lead to uncontrollable wave of unrest and violence. Warning that the whole region is sitting over a powder keg, Dahlan rejected Israeli threats to use tanks and armored vehicles in case violent clashes erupt between the two sides.