Posted on 12/29/2002 6:00:17 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has invited key Palestinian factions to convene landmark talks and forge a unified stand on sensitive issues such as a halt to suicide bombings in Israel, an Egyptian government source says.
Egypt has been a key Arab-Israeli broker since its own 1979 peace treaty with the Jewish state, but talks in Cairo including all key Palestinian factions would be the first of their kind.
"Egypt has invited (President Yasser Arafat's faction) Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to try to minimise differences and agree on one, unified stance," the official told Reuters on Sunday.
Fatah said on Sunday it accepted the invitation, and Hamas said it agreed in principle, but it was not immediately clear if the others would attend. No date has been set for the talks.
Analysts say the proposed meeting could be part of efforts to calm one regional conflict amid fears that a war against Iraq could unleash dangerous instability in the entire Middle East.
The Egyptian official said the talks would address issues like borders for a future Palestinian state, refugees and a halt to suicide bombings within Israel, not "continued resistance inside occupied land", referring to the West Bank and Gaza.
Militant Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out suicide bombings which killed scores of people, reject a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The DFLP and PFLP are Marxist organisations which are battling against Israeli occupation.
Many ordinary Arabs consider the militants legitimate resistance groups fighting occupation and responding to Israeli army killings of Palestinians.
GETTING THE PARTIES TO TALK
Fatah and Hamas, which recently held bilateral talks on ironing out differences in Cairo, were the first to comment on the Egyptian invitation.
Palestinian officials confirmed a Fatah team led by Mahmoud Abbas -- who is widely seen as a potential successor to Arafat and is better known as Abu Mazen -- would attend the meeting.
One senior Palestinian official said Egypt was working on "formulating an initiative or a paper calling for the cessation of all military actions on both sides".
An official of Hamas in Damascus said there was an agreement in principle to accept Egypt's invitation, but explicitly ruled out negotiating over a halt to attacks.
Over the last several weeks, Egyptian officials have held preparatory meetings with individual delegations from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the DFLP and the PFLP, all of which are considered "terrorist" groups by Israel.
Washington includes Hamas, Jihad and the PFLP on its list of "foreign terrorist organisations".
Analysts say that Egypt, concerned a war against Iraq and a right-wing victory in Israel's January elections could trigger a wave of instability, has redoubled efforts to promote peace by hosting talks with extremist groups it had previously shunned.
The meetings may also be the result of U.S. pressure on Egypt, a key Arab ally and second largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel, to bring radical groups into line next door as Washington prepares for war in Iraq, analysts say.
The US needs to stop pussyfooting around. If we declare these organizations as terrorist organizations why do we keep letting them meet and plan with impunity. They should all be arrested or killed. That was what Bush said - and that is what we should do. And the same for any state who sponsors their activities.
"Tamil, we're out of ammo. Call for a cease-fire!"
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