Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called yesterday for deployment of an international force into Gaza Strip which is under the control of Hamas Movement. This came during his meeting with Italian PM Prodi in Ramallah. During a joint press conference, Abbas said: we stressed on the need to deploy international troops in Gaza to secure the transfer of humanitarian assistance and allow citizens to enter and exit freely. He mentioned in particular the thousands of Palestinians stranded for the last month at Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza Strip as it is not possible to open Rafah Crossing in the absence of the European observers. Abbas also demanded from Israel to immediately return to the posts prior to September 28, 2000 as such a step is necessary to build confidence and must be in the context of efforts leading to a final solution to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. With regards to the meeting with Israeli PM Olmert, Abbas said: there are several issues that we need to hold a dialogue over so that we can reach results, mainly to seek a political horizon to launch the peace process. At Sharm al-Sheikh, there was agreement on several issues, some of them were implemented and other issues were implemented partially and other issues were not implemented at all. We have to continue efforts to serve our people.

On his part, Italian PM Prodi said deployment of such a force requires the approval of all parties concerned and the matter needs to be discussed in details. He added: we exerted pressure to convince all parties to accept the presence of international troops but we didn't enter into details and we are not very close to this matter. Prodi said the end of the national unity government and the split in the Palestinian lands must not sabotage the determination to start peace talks on the basis of two state solution. The Palestinian people must remain united on the common goal which is the establishment of an independent democratic viable Palestinian state that can live in peace and security with Israel. Prodi expressed firm support to Abbas and PM Fayyad and expressed hope that they succeed in implementing the security plan and in improving the living conditions of the Palestinians. Prodi announced the offering of 25 million euro to the PA and the opening of an Italian Office for Emergency in the Palestinian lands.

In the meantime, the United States raised doubts on possibility of sending international troops to Gaza Strip, saying the it will be difficult to get the approval of countries to send their troops in this strip which is under the full control of Hamas. The US State Department Spokesperson said: I am not sure if we can find a lot of armies desiring to participate in such a force in an environment where there isn’t a lot of understanding for the presence of such troops. He continued: It is better to intensify efforts to train Palestinian security services to become effective and capable of working in the two regions (the West Bank and Gaza Strip). I know this will be difficult in Gaza and we are focusing our efforts on this point in particular.

In the meantime, Chief of the Egyptian Intelligence Apparatus Omar Suleiman rejected the idea of bringing international troops into the Palestinian lands, raising doubts on whether such troops can find effective solutions to the current crises. This came in a meeting between Suleiman and a delegation from Israeli Meretz Party in Cairo. Meretz members quoted Suleiman saying: the people in Gaza must not starve but at the same time we must offer a lot of assistance, instead of providing them with 100 tonnes of fuel, 30 or 40 tonnes are enough to run vital operations. The members of the Israeli delegation said this policy has not worked out in the past two years. Suleiman strongly criticized the United States policy in the region. He said: in the past two or three years, the United States has not listened to us and our warnings on the expected scenario became facts on the ground and the same happened to them in Iraq which they are losing now for the sake of extremists and the same in Lebanon; they committed a grave mistake and didn’t understand the correct solution; they don’t understand what is happening there; they think that democratization is the solution to all problems; they don’t listen to the warnings coming from Egypt which is the leader in the Arab world. Suleiman accused Israel of obstructing the prisoners exchange deal because of the Israeli intransigence when preparing the list of names of prisoners to be released in the Shalit deal. According to Israeli Maariv newspaper, the Egyptian minister said: Israel is committed to release 350 prisoners in exchange for handing Shalit to Egypt and in the second phase, Egypt hands over Shalit to Israel in exchange of releasing 100 Palestinian prisoners and after three months, Israel shall release 550 prisoners as a good will gesture towards President Abbas. Suleiman affirmed the deal is stalled because of a disagreement over the nature of Palestinian prisoners to be released because Hamas submitted a list of 350 names and Israel only agreed to 40 names which led to the halt of the negotiations. At that point, Egypt proposed that Hamas presents a list of 1,000 prisoners and Israel to choose 450 names out of that list but Israel refused this proposal and insists that it will prepare the list and rejects to be hostage to a list prepared by Hamas. Suleiman explained to the delegation the Egyptian strategy to weaken the extremists' wings and reinforce the position of Abbas. he said: Abu Mazen is committed to bring accomplishments to his people; you have to understand this and in this way only, the extremists can be neutralized, meaning here Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the rest of the armed groups. Suleiman warned of the dangerous status of President Abbas. he said: Abu Mazen is left almost with nothing; no security forces, no weapons; how do you expect him to fight extremism while you refuse to transfer weapons and when you restrict freedom of movement in the West Bank; he needs real potentials to dismantle the armed militias and to gather their weapons, and if Israel continues with its polices, the West Bank also will become under the control of extremists. Omar Suleiman revealed that the Palestinians are about to take certain steps to change the ruling system that enabled Hamas to reach to power.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper and Maan news on July 11, 2007