The Israelis and Palestinians accepted an Egyptian initiative that stipulates the halt of acts of violence and reactivating of the peace negotiations and holding a meeting between Palestinian PM Ahmad Qurei' and Israeli PM Areel Sharon, according to Egyptian Middle East News Agency on May 31, 2004. The Agency explained that the initiative, which does not have yet a timetable, comes in the context of the expected Israeli withdrawal from Gaza Strip and the Egyptian commitment to train and get the Palestinian troops ready to assume security responsibility in the Strip. The Egyptian initiative was presented by Chief of Egyptian Intelligence Apparatus Omar Suleiman last week to Arafat and Sharon. According to the Egyptian news agency, Sharon accepted the Egyptian plan and vision for movement but expressed more interest at the same time in the issue of guarantees that no acts of violence are executed by Palestinians against civilians. He affirmed his approval to the halt of acts of violence, shelling, and assassinations as long as the Palestinian side remains committed to that. The agency added: in order to prove his good intentions, Sharon told Omar Suleiman: I am ready now to meet with Palestinian PM Ahmad Qurei' according to these principles and ideas. The agency adds that the Palestinian President accepted the Egyptian plan as presented by President Mubarak and announced he is ready to act immediately towards a comprehensive ceasefire as long as the goal is movement and reviving the peace process and the implementation of the roadmap, but he requested two things from Suleiman: 1- Israel's commitment to halt the aggression; 2- to give him time to meet with representatives of the Palestinian political and influential forces to discuss with them the plan and get their approval and commitment in case of agreement. The agency said the details of the plan are as follows:

The movement starts in meetings between Palestinian President Arafat and the representatives of the Palestinian factions and forces and in case Arafat and the factions reach an agreement, Cairo will host the factions to continue with them drafting an agreement that can put an end to the illegitimate violence and to represent a commitment by all parties to abide by it; the political activities will include a meeting between Qurei' and Sharon. Following these moves, a group (between 15- and 200) of Egyptian security and technical cadres travel to Gaza to assume the task of training the Palestinian elements and cadres for a period of six months. At the end of this process, the trained Palestinian forces reaching 30,000 elements assume full security control on condition that the Egyptian training and rehabilitation force supported by international cadres, technical experts and observers remain on the ground in Gaza to assess the performance and follow up and detect any violations from any party. According to the news agency, Suleiman told Arafat in their last meeting that Egypt will not endanger the lives of its cadres who will assume the task of training the Palestinian troops. The agency said that as soon as Mubarak got Arafat's response, he started contacts and moves with Israel and the influential parties: Washington, Paris, London and Madrid and others and then he sent Suleiman to discuss the plan with Sharon. Suleiman stressed on the following points during his meeting with Sharon:

1- Egypt will assume training and preparing Palestinian security troops to be capable of controlling and filling the gap and vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal;

2- the operation of training will take place on the Palestinian territory in Gaza Strip where the first phase of the Israeli withdrawal shall take place;

3- Egypt will not allow that its security troops which will assume the training be subject to any aggression regardless of the justifications;

4- the Egyptian force that will train the Palestinian troops will work on equipping the Palestinians with devices and telecommunications devices and vehicles and light weapons and will build headquarters and prisons in cooperation with the donor countries;

5- next to the Egyptian force, there will be security, technical and administrative elements from friendly western European countries to assist in the operations of training and to follow up and monitor the accurate implementation of each party to its commitments.
The agency said that Suleiman conveyed to Sharon that Arafat is in full agreement with this plan and that he was the one who sought it in the first place. The agency added that Suleiman conveyed to Sharon the insistence of President Mubarak on the following points:

a- the withdrawal from Gaza Strip must be full;
b- Withdrawal from Gaza to be the start of an Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian territories occupied in 1967;
c- that this step be the start to implementing the roadmap - one phase after the other;
d- to have a commitment to maintain the atmosphere needed to continue in the peace process and return to the negotiations table.

The agency said Egypt contacted Britain, the US, Germany, Spain, France and other countries and briefed them on the initiative and requested their assistance with funds and equipment and experts and that Egypt got positive responses from all sides and they are all ready to provide the Palestinian troops with all their needs. The news agency said the meetings of the Israeli Cabinet to approve the plan are extremely important in order to make the plan succeed and that Sharon might seek to make a coalition with the Labor Party at the expense of the right wing parties which will withdraw from the government.

Meanwhile, Sharon and Mubarak held a phone call yesterday and discussed the current efforts and both agreed on forming a joint committee to discuss all issues pertaining to both countries. Israeli FM Silvan Shalom will travel next Thursday to Cairo to meet with President Mubarak. Sources in Shalom Office said the visit aims to establish a joint committee to look into political, economic and security issues that concern both countries. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Mofaz stated that Israel hopes to withdraw from all of Gaza Strip including the border strip between Gaza and Egypt but this depends largely on the Egyptians. He added: Egyptian-Israeli teams will be formed to work on this.

Meanwhile, Palestinian PM Ahmad Qurei' and the Cabinet welcomed the Egyptian efforts to assist the PNA to rehabilitate the Palestinian security forces. Qurei' told reporters following the Cabinet session that the training will start soon so that we can be ready to enforce law on everyone equally. Media sources said that Egypt made proposals to the Palestinian Leadership in order to set up a joint security plan and that it demanded from the leadership to give its response by mid June, but Qurei' denied reports that Egypt warned the PNA; he said: Egypt does not make warnings to the PNA and the Palestinian people and their leadership. He explained that Egypt made a proposal and gave us two weeks to study it. Regarding Arafat's response to the proposal, he said: President Arafat still considers the proposal and we are studying it together. He did not rule out any meeting with Israeli PM Sharon if such a meeting will bring about results.


Published on Al Ayyam Newspaper, June 1, 2004