Posted on 05/16/2004 9:55:44 AM PDT by yonif
Palestinian officials said Sunday that they are ready for a cease-fire with Israel as a first step toward reviving the stalled road map peace plan. Militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas told Egyptian mediators they are ready to commit to a cease-fire, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath said.
Sha'ath said he made the cease-fire proposal during a meeting Saturday in Jordan with United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"We told Powell that ... we are ready for such a cease-fire if the United States is able to bring an Israeli commitment to such an agreement," he said.
Sha'ath said Powell did not respond to the offer. Powell was traveling Sunday and not immediately available to comment.
Earlier Sunday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that Palestinians must refrain from reacting to Israeli raids so as not to give Israel an excuse for attacks, Israel Radio reported.
Qureia, who met with Mubarak in Cairo, also called for a cease-fire, saying it could lead to a renewal of peace talks, the radio said.
In addition, Qureia said the Palestinians would fulfill all their commitments if Israel were to completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip, according to the report. However, he reiterated the Palestinians' call for withdrawal from the West Bank as well.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials said the cease-fire proposal would be raised in talks Monday with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in Berlin.
The proposal followed a bloody week of fighting in the Gaza Strip in which 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in three separate attacks.
Israeli officials brushed off the Palestinian proposal. "We have to see actions, not declarations," said a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisting that Israel was only defending itself against Palestinian terror attacks.
Actually, it's WW IV. WW III, aka the "Cold War", ended with the fall of the Soviet Union.
How many times have we been at this juncture now?
You know the saying: insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
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