Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a mutual halt to violence at a Middle East summit Tuesday, raising cautious hope for an end to more than four years of deadly conflict.
The announcements, in carefully worded statements reviewed by both sides, marked a first step toward what officials said could be a gradual return to normalcy that could pave the way for renewed peace negotiations.
“This is the beginning of peace,” said Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister. “If there is anything that has been proved, it is that nobody can impose a military solution.”
But the summit pronouncements at this Red Sea resort face a tough test on the ground, where a possible attack by militants opposed to a truce could provoke an Israeli response, shattering a fragile calm that has taken hold in recent weeks.
Speaking in Paris after a visit to the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the summit “was clearly an important step forward.”
“Success is not assured, but America is resolute,” Rice said. “This is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for some years to come, and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinians seize this chance.”
Sharon and Abbas, in their first encounter since the Palestinian president took office last month, greeted each other warmly and met for about an hour before making their public declarations. They faced each other at a large circular table, joined by the host, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and by King Abdullah II of Jordan.
“We jointly agreed with Prime Minister Sharon to stop all acts of violence against Israelis and Palestinians everywhere,” Abbas said. “The quiet our lands will witness from today is the beginning of a new era and the beginning of peace and hope.”
Sharon responded in similar language.
“Today, in my meeting with Chairman Abbas, we agreed that all Palestinians will stop all acts of violence against Israelis everywhere, and, in parallel, Israel will cease all its military activity against all Palestinians anywhere,” Sharon said. “We hope that today we are starting a new period of tranquility and hope.”
The Palestinian cease-fire pledge was worded to include not only attacks inside Israel, but also assaults on Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, violence that has been backed by many Palestinians as legitimate resistance to occupation.
The Israeli statement was similarly sweeping, effectively declaring a halt to the incursions, airborne strikes, killings of suspected militants and house demolitions that have been the hallmarks of Israel’s response to the armed Palestinian uprising.
More than 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis have died in the current conflict, which began in September 2000.
Abbas already has persuaded militant Palestinian groups to suspend attacks pending a formal truce, leading to a sharp drop in violence in the weeks since he took office. But militant leaders have demanded a parallel cease-fire pledge by Israel, a halt to Israeli military attacks and the release of all Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a truce declaration.
Osama Hamdan, the representative in Lebanon of the militant group Hamas, maintained Tuesday that those conditions have not been met, and a spokesman for the group in Gaza said it was not bound by the summit statements.
“The announcement … of a cease-fire expresses the position only of the Palestinian Authority,” said the Gaza spokesman, Mushir al-Masri.
Shaath said he would go immediately to Damascus, Syria, to meet leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to report on the summit results and “to make sure that our commitment is clear.”
“From now on, any violation of the truce will be a violation of the national commitment and will have to be dealt with as such,” Shaath said.
At a Middle East summit in 2003 in Aqaba, Jordan, to launch the internationally backed “road map” peace plan, Abbas called for an end to the armed Palestinian uprising. But violence surged again several weeks later and a cease-fire unraveled.
This time there is an Israeli pledge to halt military action and a series of Israeli confidence-building measures that are being discussed by both sides.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Israelis and Palestinians formed committees to discuss guidelines for freeing Palestinian prisoners, a hand-over of security responsibility in several West Bank cities to the Palestinians and arrangements to suspend Israeli pursuit of Palestinian fugitives.
But Abbas cautioned that many other issues remain in dispute, such as Israeli settlements and a separation barrier that Israel is building in the West Bank.
“What we agreed to today is just a beginning of a process to bridge the differences between us,” he said.
Israeli officials said Sharon invited Abbas to visit him at his ranch in southern Israel for further talks, and that Abbas accepted. Palestinian officials said other meetings could follow. In another sign of progress, Egypt and Jordan agreed to return their ambassadors to Israel after a four-year absence. The ambassadors were withdrawn early in the Palestinian uprising in protest of Israeli military measures to put down the unrest.
Sharon’s meeting with Mubarak was the first since the Israeli prime minister was elected in 2001. Mubarak shunned Sharon during the years of violent conflict with the Palestinians, but relations between the leaders warmed after Sharon announced his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and Egypt and Israel stepped up contacts in an effort to ensure calm after the pullout.
For Sharon, his reception in Egypt at a conference with three Arab leaders was an important sign of acceptance in the Arab world, where he has been reviled for his tough military response to the Palestinian uprising and his leadership of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. During that invasion, Christian militiamen massacred hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.
“We have an opportunity to disengage from the path of blood which has been forced on us over the past four years,” Sharon said. “We have an opportunity to start on a new path.”
Abbas voiced a similar hope.
“We look forward to the day when the language of dialogue will replace the language of bullets and the gun,” he said.
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Agreement a first step, but bigger issues remain
Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Tuesday to halt hostilities. The agreement may help jump-start talks for a permanent peace plan after more than four years of bloodshed (area map).
ISRAEL AGREES …
– To cease military activities against Palestinians.
– To hand over control of five West Bank towns within weeks, beginning with Jericho.
– To release 500 Palestinian prisoners immediately and 400 later.
THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY AGREES …
– To stop all acts of violence against Israelis.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Egypt and Jordan agreed to return their ambassadors to Israel.
LONG-TERM ISSUES
Tuesday’s agreement helps pave the way for both sides to negotiate more complicated issues that have derailed peace talks in the past:
– Final borders of a Palestinian state, specifically with regard to the West Bank and Israeli settlements there.
– The status of Palestinian refugees, many of whom hope to return to homes abandoned during the 1948 war following Israel’s creation.
– The status of Jerusalem, which remains a divided city and which both sides claim as their capital.
Source: Associated Press
Chicago Tribune
– See microfilm for complete graphic.
