Israel attacks trilateral Arab summit

Israel criticized yesterday the trilateral Arab summit in which the Palestinian Jordanian and Egyptian leaders took part, claiming that this three-way summit will not have any effect for resuming the peace process.

David Bar-Ilan, the Israeli prime minister's advisor for information affairs announced that the goals of the Cairo - summit will not be achieved, saying that the goal of the Cairo summit was to pressure Israel into concessions, yet this will not succeed.

Bar-Ilan was quoted by Israeli daily Haaretz as saying, "The Jerusalem plan is an internal municipal matter. We don't expect any foreign government to be involved in this," warning against "constant threats of violence."

A statement released by the government's press office added that the Palestinians have to resume direct negotiations with Israel, "disrupted by the Palestinian Authority 15 months ago."

The statement restated the Israeli position on the peace process that, "The agreement on the second redeployment is being held up by the Palestinian side's failure to keep its commitments."

Then Bar-Ilan attacked the Egyptian - French initiative directly, saying that it cannot lead to anything except a continuation of the peace process deadlock.

The discussion comes in the wake of an Israeli plan to expand the municipality of Jerusalem, a measure that has elicited widespread international criticism. Last week in the UN Security Council, speakers from many states condemned the Israeli plan as a violation of international law and a preemption of final status negotiations with the Palestinians, during which the status of Jerusalem is to be discussed.

Action by the Security Council is still pending.