Abbas gives Egypt mediation 'unconditional' support
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.
At least three smaller Palestinian militant groups will send delegations to Egypt on Monday, including the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) which often claims rocket attacks on Israel.
The delegation "will present the Committees' vision for a ceasefire with the Zionist enemy considering that experience confirms the enemy will not adhere to it," PRC spokesman Abu Mujahid said in a statement.
Spokesmen from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have also said they will be sending representatives to Cairo.
The radical Islamic Jihad movement, responsible for many of the persistent rocket attacks on southern Israel, has not yet said whether it will be sending a delegation but was involved in abortive truce talks last month.
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."
