Abbas: Israel has 3 weeks to approve Shalit deal
Palestinian president tells Al-Ahram German mediator in Shalit talks gave Israel 'two, three weeks' to approve deal before he halts mediation efforts; Hamas official says talks frozen due to state's refusal to release prisoners
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claims the German mediator in the Gilad Shalit talks has given Israel an ultimatum by which the state has three weeks to approve a prisoner swap deal to retrieve the kidnapped soldier.
A Hamas source told Ynet that the German mediator blames Israel for hesitating and delaying the deal.
Abbas told the Egyptian Al-Ahram in an interview Saturday, "I have learned from Israel, and not from anyone else, that the German mediator has allotted a limited time period after which he will stop mediating between the sides if the prisoner swap deal is not completed."
When asked to describe the length of time allotted to Israel Abbas answered, "Two or three weeks."
Abbas also claimed he had asked Israel a number of times to release Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Saadat, who headed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in order to complete the deal.
He said Hamas had been wrong to assume he had opposed Barghouti's release in fear that the latter would compete against him in Palestinian elections.
"I don't mean to run again in the elections, so why would I thwart his release?" he asked. "I asked Olmert a dozen times, and I am still asking for Barghouti's release."
Meanwhile a Hamas source told Ynet that "every time the deal comes close to being completed, Israel starts withdrawing and biding time in order to postpone agreements."
He said his organization had been flexible in the matter of the prisoners' deportation, and that Israel was currently preventing the deal from closing.
"Internal conflict in Israel, mostly around prominent prisoners, is preventing the talks from moving forward as well as a breakthrough that would allow the completion of the deal within a short time period," the source told Ynet.
Muhammad Nazal, a member of Hamas' political bureau, said talks on a prisoner swap deal for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit have been frozen due to Israel's refusal to release a large group of prisoners.
"Israel's security authorities tried to use the press agencies in Israel in order to put pressure on the prisoners' families, so that they in turn would put pressure on Hamas by saying that the deal is ready and we should schedule a date for its finalization," he said in an interview with the Hamas-backed journal 'Palestine', published in Gaza.
Nazal added that Hamas was determined to hold out until a "proper" deal could be negotiated, in which they plan to achieve the largest number of prisoners ever to have been released in a swap deal.
'Iran wants to hold all the cards'
The Palestinian president also told the paper that Iran had given Hamas $250 million in order to thwart inter-Palestinian talks with its rival, Fatah, which Abbas heads.
"Iran wants to hold all of the cards in order to use them in any future dialogue with the US," he explained.
Abbas also expressed support for "steps taken by Egypt on its eastern border with Gaza", referring to an underground steel security barrier the country is constructing in a bid to cut itself off from the Strip. "This has to do with Egyptian sovereignty," he said.
On Thursday Egyptian sources reported that Palestinian gunmen had opened fire on a number of different occasions at construction workers working on the fence.
On a different matter, Abbas said he was unconcerned by the fact that Israel was tapping his calls. "I'm not afraid," he said. "I know I am exposed to the world and that everything is recorded. I have nothing to hide."
Ali Waked contributed to this report
