Posted on 04/16/2004 9:44:50 AM PDT by yonif
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_04/084.html
GAZA, Palestine, April 12, 2004 (IPC)-- [Official PA website] Palestinian Preventive Security Chief in the Gaza Strip, Colonel Rashid Abu Shbak, said Monday that if the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip went smoothly, the international community would definitely help extract more similar moves in the West Bank.
Abu Shbak's remarks came in a press conference held at the Palestinian Preventive Security's premises, amid possible Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Asked whether there were certain mechanisms for that withdrawal, Abu Shbak said that the underway international efforts involving the Israeli plan, such as that of the United States and Egypt, were discussing such mechanisms.
Colonel Abu Shbak emphasized that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and various Palestinian factions would abide by their commitments involving the post-occupation era, a matter that would urge the international community, including the said parties, to extract more similar Israeli steps especially in the West Bank, which will remain under the Israeli military control.
As for arrangements on borders, movement of Palestinian people and economy to and from Israel, security on crossing borders and others, Abu Shbak made clear that the Egyptian responsibility for the Egyptian side of the borders, south of Gaza Strip, was governed by the Camp David Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
"Palestinian commercial activities on the borderline are governed by the Israeli-Palestinian Paris Economic Agreement, while the flow of Palestinian travelers on both sides of the borders should be negotiated by the Egyptians and the Israelis", Abu Shbak further clarified.
He expressed the PNA's readiness to take full control and judicial responsibility for the Gaza Strip in case Israel pulled out its forces, allowing no single Palestinian to break the law just as the situation was in 1994, when the PNA maintained the Palestinian 'achievements of peace'.
The Preventive Security Chief confirmed that the PNA was preparing for general elections throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, and that unless the various Palestinian factions agreed on dialogue to reach a compromise, this would greatly help maintain Palestinian national unity.
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