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Palestinians, Israelis bid to salvage Mideast summit
10/10/2005
JERUSALEM, Oct 9 (AFP): Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas were to meet Sunday to salvage the prospect of a summit this week for which neither side is harbouring great expectations.
While Sharon's camp expects what would be the third meeting between the two men this year to take place on Tuesday, the Palestinians have yet to confirm the date and say any summit should only take place if it can yield results.
A top aide to Sharon denied a public television report that the summit had been shelved but the chances of it taking place this week were further damaged by a pledge from Palestinian militants not to lay down their weapons.
"For a successful summit we need to have thorough preparations," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, who was to meet with Sharon's top aides Dov Weisglass and Shalom Turjman in Tel Aviv, told AFP.
Planning minister Ghassan Khatib, who was to join the agenda-setting talks, was even more downbeat about the chances of the summit taking place as scheduled.
"No tangible results have been achieved yet that would justify holding this summit," he told Palestinian radio.
"Therefore, the Palestinian side believes there is a need of additional preparations... Most of the issues are still under discussion," he added.
The meeting Sunday follows earlier preparatory talks on Friday about the summit where the Palestinians will raise their demands for Israel to hand over control of more West Bank cities and for the release of prisoners.
The Israeli side is in turn expected to push the Palestinians to do more to rein in militant groups in the wake of rocket attacks which have continued despite the historic pullout of soldiers from the Gaza Strip four weeks ago and rebuffed demands by Abbas to disarm.
Israeli officials quoted by the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said that they were not pinning any great hopes on the summit, adding that the main reason they had agreed to a summit was to placate US President George W. Bush.
"No one believes that Abu Mazen (Abbas) is going to begin fighting Hamas tomorrow morning," one official was quoted as saying.
"Sharon is going to offer Abu Mazen a lot of carrots and eased restrictions -- but on condition that he begins fighting terrorism."
The radical Islamist group Hamas was one of seven hardline factions which jointly pledged Saturday night that they would not be laying down their weapons any time soon.
"Giving up the weapons would play into the hands of the enemy and any attempt to disarm us would meet strong resistance," said the groups in a statement read out at a Gaza City news conference.
Speaking to reporters late Saturday, Abbas said that there was no point in having a summit which would "frustrate or disappoint the Palestinian or the Israeli public."
Abbas and Sharon were to have met at the beginning of last week but were then unable to agree on an agenda for the summit amid a spike in violence in the Gaza Strip.
With Israel due to come to a shutdown Wednesday and Thursday as Jews mark the Yom Kippur day of atonement and Abbas due to travel to the United States next week, failure to agree to a meeting Tuesday will likely lead to a lengthy postponement.
In events on the ground, an armed Palestinian man was killed early Sunday in a shootout with the Israeli army in the northern West Bank.
Palestinian security sources said the victim was Muataz Abu Zaarur, a 25-year-old member of the radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Abbas's Fatah faction.
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