Chicago Tribune

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed Wednesday to meet in Egypt next week for the highest-level talks between the two sides in more than four years of violent conflict.

King Abdullah of Jordan will also attend the summit, where Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will play host at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, officials said.

Mubarak invited the leaders in a bid to promote peace efforts, building on growing cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians and a sharp drop in violence after Abbas persuaded militant groups to suspend attacks pending a formal truce.

It was unclear whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is to arrive in the Middle East over the weekend, will also attend. She is due to hold separate meetings a day before the summit with Sharon and Abbas in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The invitation to the summit was delivered to Sharon by Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, during a hastily arranged meeting Wednesday.

Suleiman met Tuesday in Cairo with Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas, and Ramadan Shalah, the head of Islamic Jihad, to discuss a cease-fire, The Associated Press reported.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qureia said that at the summit the Palestinians would seek a mutual cease-fire, a halt to Israel army raids and targeting of militants and a release of Palestinian prisoners.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said he hoped the summit would lead to “the beginning of implementation of mutual obligations by both sides according to the road map.”

The “road map” peace plan, drafted by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, outlines steps to end violence and resume negotiations leading to a peace agreement and creation of a Palestinian state.

But Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, said the Israeli focus would be on security matters.

“We hope this meeting will result in further progress on security issues, mainly the steps the Palestinians have to take to bring about the cessation of violence, terror and incitement and to dismantle the terror organizations,” Gissin said. “These steps are necessary if we are to reach the road map to peace.”

Senior officials from both sides are to meet Thursday to set the agenda.

Also Thursday, Sharon is to convene his security Cabinet to approve a series of Israeli steps in conjunction with the summit, including the phased handover of five West Bank cities to Palestinian security control, a prisoner release, and the formation of a panel with the Palestinians to remove fugitive militants from Israel’s wanted list.

Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, told Israel Army radio Thursday that Israel would suspend pursuit of fugitives in areas under Palestinian security control if the wanted men hand in their weapons and sign a written statement pledging not to carry out attacks on Israelis. Hundreds of Palestinian militants have been killed or arrested by Israeli forces in the recent years of fighting.

In another sign of growing cooperation, Palestinian police, who have fanned out across the Gaza Strip to deter militant attacks, destroyed a tunnel near the border with Egypt on Thursday.

Israel has carried out repeated military raids to uncover and destroy such tunnels – used to smuggle weapons, drugs and other contraband from Egypt – and has demolished hundreds of homes in the process.

Qureia said agreement had been reached in principle on resuming construction of a seaport in the Gaza Strip and said he hoped a similar accord would be reached on reopening an airport that was put out of commission by Israel during the recent years of fighting.

The summit will be Mubarak’s first meeting with Sharon since the Israeli became prime minister in 2001.

Mubarak shunned Sharon during the current conflict with the Palestinians, but relations between the two leaders have warmed in recent months as Israel and Egypt have moved to cooperate in ensuring calm after a planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer.

Mubarak recently said that Sharon offered the Palestinians their best hope of reaching a peace agreement.

Sharon last met Abbas in June 2003, during Abbas’ brief tenure as prime minister under Yasser Arafat, at a summit in Jordan with President Bush to launch the road map. The plan soon unraveled amid continuing violence and the failure of either side to carry out its provisions.

Shimon Peres, the Israeli deputy prime minister, said that next week’s summit carried the seeds of success.

“The very holding of the meeting indicates a very advanced stage of agreement,” he said.

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(c) 2005, Chicago Tribune.

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