A rchive Date
[ 31-01-2006 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Egypt ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/01/31/1420227-ap.html
Arabs launch diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing moderation to Hamas
By SALAH NASRAWI
January 31, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In a swirl of Arab diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and Jordan pressed the Islamic militant group Hamas on Tuesday to moderate its stand on Israel and to entice the defeated Fatah party into a deal to share power.
There were growing indications the diplomacy could lead to a meeting, perhaps later this week in Cairo, between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the mainstream Fatah party, and the Damascus-based political leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal. It would be the first meeting between the two since July, when Abbas visited Syria.
"A delegation from Hamas' leadership will start a regional tour to Islamic and Arab countries sometime soon," Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas official, told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Mashaal said late Tuesday he would meet Abbas "at the suitable time" but that no date had been set. He spoke to reporters during a meeting with a 10-member delegation from Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, its political arm the Islamic Action Front and legislators in Syria to congratulate Hamas leaders for their victory.
Egypt, meanwhile, sent its intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to Damascus, where he was thought to have met leaders of Mashaal's more hardline Syrian-based arm of Hamas. Suleiman's mission was to learn the group's plans and explore a possible role for Egypt, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the visit.
Suleiman has long been Egypt's pointman on the Palestinian issue. Last year, he played the leading role in a Cairo conference that produced a ceasefire by Hamas and other militant Palestinians. Hamas has stuck by the ceasefire, though others - including Islamic Jihad - have carried out several anti-Israeli attacks.
Hamas wants Egypt to help persuade Fatah to join a unity government, but is facing resistance from the mainstream faction and likely will face demands for concessions.
Abbas flew to Cairo on Tuesday night after a session in Amman with Jordan's King Abdullah earlier in the day. Abbas immediately went into meetings with Egypt's prime minister and foreign minister. The Jordanian monarch said he told Abbas that all Palestinian factions must "understand the requirements of this period, deal with it logically, and prove to the whole world that there is a Palestinian partner able to go forward to achieve peace."
Abbas said there was nothing to prevent him meeting Mashaal, "but it's not on my schedule now." In Damascus, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Mashaal will meet Abbas in Cairo soon but not during the Palestinian leader's visit Wednesday. Abbas meets President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday as does Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Hamas stunned Israel, its allies and much of the Arab world with its overwhelming victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections last week and is under intense pressure from the international community - including the Arabs - to step back from its platform of the destruction of Israel.
Hamas has so far refused to disavow its calls for the destruction of Israel and renounce violence, despite warnings of a cutoff of international aid for the Palestinians unless it does so as it forms a new government.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal voiced optimism Tuesday that Hamas - which has opposed Arab-Israeli peace talks and carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis - might assume a more moderate agenda.
"I can't believe that they won't act responsibly as a government," al-Faisal said in Malaysia, where he was accompanying the Saudi king on a visit. "We have to wait and see, and we suggest that everybody wait and see. We need cool heads now, rather than reactions that close the door to a peaceful settlement."
Arab countries are eager to moderate Hamas and see it enter government with policies that would avoid a cutoff of international aid to the Palestinians and avert a breakdown in the peace process with Israel.
They also want to prevent the Hamas victory from boosting Islamic movements in their own territories.
Western powers have said they will not fund a Hamas-led Palestinian government unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel. And Israel has said it will not deal with a government that includes Hamas, which it regards as a terrorist organization.
Hamas, meanwhile, is looking for new sources of funding.
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved
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