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Hopes
pinned on Powell's visit to Egypt
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By
Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
May 12 (IslamOnline.net) - As U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met
here Monday, May 12, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak over peace
efforts, well-informed Palestinian sources told IslamOnline.net
Sunday, May 11, that Powell rebuffed Egyptian-Palestinian peace
proposals put forth by Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.
The
joint initiative urged the U.S. to support the inter-Palestinian
dialogue, demand Israel cease its aggression against the Palestinian
people, ease their plight and lift the siege imposed on President
Yasser Arafat.
Powell
warned
Saturday, May 10, against any delays to implementing the
internationally-backed roadmap Mideast peace plan in what appeared to
be an allusion to Israel's insistence that it will be allowed to make
changes to the document.
He
further asked Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmmoud Abbas to crack down
hard on the "anti-Israeli" Palestinian factions,
particularly the resistance groups of Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
Provocative
Practices
For
his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher told reporters Sunday,
May 11, after talks with E.U. foreign policy and security chief Javier
Solana, that Israel should "stop its provocative daily practices
which victimize the Palestinians, in order to be able to start the
application of the roadmap which opens the way to a comprehensive and
permanent peace in the region."
Maher
said the Palestinian Authority has accepted the roadmap with all its
details and without reservations and "it is now up to the Israeli
side to do the same."
The
Egyptian minister linked "the Palestinians' respect for a
ceasefire to Israel's stopping provocative daily practices against the
Palestinian people."
Maher
further said the latest Israeli "human measures do not carry much
weight and Israel should accept the roadmap and live up to its
duties."
Israeli
security sources claimed Sunday that the Israeli authorities would
allow some 25,000 Palestinian workers to return to work inside Israel
and release some 180 prisoners in a bid to leave the impression that
it had taken some positive steps on the path of peace.
Powell
has just ended a
critical round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders
on Sunday with no sign of progress toward persuading them to begin
implementing the roadmap.
Political
Egyptian sources told IOL that Egyptian officials would try to
convince Powell to pressure Israel into making clear-cut pledges to
put an immediate stop to its daily aggression in return for persuading
the Palestinian factions to stop their attacks for a while to put the
Israeli intentions to the test.
If
the U.S.-Egyptian talks proved successful, the inter-Palestinian
dialogue would be resumed once again in Cairo next week, the sources
added.
