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Egyptian soldiers on border
Photo: AP
Amos Gilad in talks with Egyptians
Photo: Gil Yohanan

'Dramatic progress' in talks with Egyptians about Rafah crossing

Security officials tell Ynet that Egyptians pledged 30,000 Palestinians currently residing in northern Sinai would return to Gaza Strip by next week. Meanwhile, Abbas seeks to take over control of Rafah crossing

"There has been dramatic progress made with the Egyptians with regards to sealing the open border in Rafah," a senior security official told Ynet on Wednesday following conversations between Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's political security department, and senior Egyptian officials.

 

According to a telephone conversation between Gilad and the Egyptian officials, there are currently between 25,000-30,000 Palestinians residing in northern Sinai. The Egyptians said the Gazan Palestinians were supposed to return to the Gaza Strip by next week. The officials also reported that they were acting to close the open border with the Palestinian enclave.

 

The authorities in Cairo told the Israeli officials they are diligently acting to locate people smuggling terrorists and weapons as well as money meant to be transferred to Hamas into Gaza.

 

As recently as several months ago, diplomatic nerves were tense as Israel and Egypt traded barbs over the state of smuggling on the Gaza-Strip-Sinai border.

 

Officials from Defense Minister Ehud Barak's office denied a report from the Kuwaiti al-Qubs newspaper that Israel was willing to accept modifications to the Israel-Egypt peace treaty in order to allow Egyptian police to carry heavier weapons on the Gaza-Egypt frontier.

 

Israeli security officials were hopeful that the Egyptians would agree to a joint investigation of what exactly occurred on the border in order to learn from the incident and prevent it from happening in the future.

 

Abbas weighs in

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Hamas on Wednesday to end its "coup in Gaza" and rejected any changes to arrangements governing the Gaza-Egypt border that would give a say to his Islamist rivals.

 

Speaking after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority would only take control of the crossings under previous agreements between the Authority, Egypt, Israel, the United States and the European Union.

 

"We do not accept any new agreements. We are committed to the international agreements as they are," Abbas told reporters.

 

"Hamas has to end its coup in Gaza, accept all international obligations and accept holding early elections. After that, our hearts are open for any dialogue," he added.

 

Abbas has already won US, European and Arab backing to take control of the Rafah crossing, to the exclusion of Hamas.

 

It is unclear how Abbas would be able to exert control over Rafah given opposition from Hamas, whose forces have command on the ground.

 

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday that Hamas "does not accept anything less than a key role in the Rafah crossing."

 

On January 23, Palestinian gunmen affiliated with different organizations set off several explosive devices along the concrete wall dividing the Palestinian and Egyptian Rafah, after the crossings between and the Gaza Strip and Israel were closed off sending hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pouring into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

 

Reuters contributed to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.30.08, 14:54
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