SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) — Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday gave his unconditional support to Egypt's mediation efforts with Israel as Palestinian factions prepared to meet in Cairo to discuss a truce.
The Palestinian Authority "unconditionally supports the efforts undertaken by Egypt to achieve a truce in Gaza," Abbas told reporters in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after talks with President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt has been serving as a go-between in the truce negotiations as Israel considers Hamas -- which has control of the Gaza Strip -- a terror group and refuses any direct contacts.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will host Palestinian factions on Tuesday and Wednesday to draft a common position regarding the truce proposal.
Abbas said he was fully committed to the so-called Yemen initiative, the latest attempt at getting rivals Fatah and Hamas to talk.
In March, Abbas's Fatah party signed an agreement with Hamas in Sanaa to open the first direct talks between the two bitter rivals since the Islamists' bloody seizure of the Gaza Strip in June, but disagreements soon erupted over the interpretation of the text.
On Thursday, senior Hamas official Mahmud al-Zahar said in Cairo that the Islamist movement had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza first, which could be extended to the West Bank within six months.
Zahar, speaking after talks with Suleiman, said the move must be "reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive" and that Israel must end its crippling blockade of the impoverished territory.
A proposal put forward by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit stipulates a ceasefire, the opening of the border crossings, a lifting of the blockade and finally the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said on Sunday however that the plan "does not say the elements are simultaneous."
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