Report: Jihad leaders secretly visit Cairo

Palestinian organization's top members meet with Egyptian officials on question of whether or not they need to be committed to truce with Israel, al-Hayat reports; Islamic Jihad leaders conclude: Truce must be reciprocal

Roee Nahmias|Published: 05.07.06 , 13:51

A delegation of senior Islamic Jihad members, headed by Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Shallah and his deputy Ziad Nakhala, paid a clandestine visit to Cairo last week, according to a report Sunday in the London-base pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.

The Islamic Jihad members apparently met with Egyptian officials to discuss the situation in the Palestinian Authority.

According to the report, the Islamic Jihad delegation was invited to Cairo to meet head of Egyptian Intelligence Omar Suleiman. The sides discussed the question of the Islamic Jihad's commitment to the truce with Israel agreed upon among Palestinian factions before diplomatic contacts with Israel could be reestablished.

The Islamic Jihad members insisted that Israel was not keeping its side of the bargain, and “continued its aggression towards the Palestinian people, targeted assassinations of leaders, siege policy and the failure to free security prisoners.”

The Egyptian side attempted to convince Shallah and Nakhala of the need to earn positive public opinion in the world “and not give excuses for the Israeli aggression with Qassam attacks.”

At the end of the meeting, Jihad leaders said that the “calm” had to come from both sides.

Egypt: Fix Road Map

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who met with European Union Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner Saturday, said that the Road Map must be amended because the date set to complete the plan was in 2005, which has already passed.

“If we haven’t succeeded thus far,” Aboul Gheit said, it is reasonable to assume that it may take years to implement an agreement."

Aboul Gheit, who will take part in a Quartet meeting in New York Tuesday along with his Saudi Arabian and Jordanian counterparts, expressed hope that the meeting would yield positive results in advancing political processes, the return to negotiations and “the elimination of suffering for the Palestinian people, which is suffering greatly these days.”