Jordan Times
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Palestinian PM due in Amman for talks AMMAN — Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is to arrive in Amman today to discuss with top officials the latest developments related to the Palestinian issue.
Jordan, Egypt FMs to brief pan-Arab panel Monday on Israel visit
By Faisal Malkawi with agency dispatches
Palestinian Ambassador to Jordan Attallah Kheiri said: “Fayyad will arrive today and meet with Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit and Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib. He will brief them on the mission and future plans of his newly formed government.”
The visit is the first by the premier to Jordan since he was appointed as head of the Palestinian caretaker government two weeks ago.
Kheiri said Fayyad, in his capacity also as the foreign minister, will leave for Cairo to participate in Monday’s extraordinary meeting of the Arab foreign ministers. Khatib and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit are due to present a 13-member committee set up to activate the Arab Peace Initiative with a report on the outcome of their meetings in Israel last Wednesday.
During the visit to Israel, both officials held intensive talks over the Arab peace proposal, endorsed in 2002, and relaunched in the Riyadh summit this year.
The Arab Peace Initiative ministerial committee was formed shortly after the Riyadh summit. It groups the foreign ministers of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian National Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Sudan and Yemen.
Meanwhile, in the Palestinian lands, Israeli soldiers killed two Fateh fighters on Saturday as they tried to launch an attack on Israel from Gaza, the group said.
A spokesman for Fateh’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades said the thwarted attack was meant to send a signal that the group had no intention of abiding by the platform of President Mahmoud Abbas’s new government in the occupied West Bank.
Led by Fayyad, the new government dropped the phrase “armed resistance” from its platform on Friday, angering Hamas and other activists in Gaza.
Fateh lost control of the coastal strip last month when Hamas routed its members. Abbas responded by sacking a Hamas-led government and appointing Fayyad’s.
“Our message is that the Zionist occupation is continuing its aggression and therefore the resistance will continue,” said Abu Thaer, a spokesman for Al Aqsa Marytrs’ Brigades in Gaza.
“We tell Fayyad that his platform is a political platform. Palestine was occupied militarily and we will liberate it militarily,” the spokesman added.
A statement issued by Islamic Jihad said: “If Fayyad rejects the choice of resistance, he should pick another people to represent.” The Israeli army said its soldiers opened fire on the two Al Aqsa fighters near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and identified hitting them.
“They were planting an explosive device near the fence,” an army spokeswoman said.
Al Aqsa said the two resistance fighters were trying to plant bombs and fire mortars into Israel.
Israeli troops often shoot at Palestinians who approach the Gaza border with Israel to try to prevent armed infiltrations.
Israel also conducts raids in the area to try to stop fighters from launching rockets and mortars into Israel.
Hamas’s takeover of Gaza has stirred fears in Israel of a big increase in attacks from the Palestinian enclave.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared last week to rule out a major military incursion for now. Israel is under pressure from the United States and the European Union to restart long-stalled peace talks.
In a bid to bolster Abbas, Israel has recently renewed a measure of security cooperation with his forces in the West Bank, agreed to stop pursuing some 180 wanted Fateh fighters and released 255 Palestinian prisoners from its jails.
Under a deal between Israel, Egypt and Fayyad’s government, thousands of Palestinians who have been stranded in Egypt since Hamas’s takeover of Gaza on June 14 will be allowed back starting Sunday, Palestinian officials said on Saturday.
An aide to Abbas said 100 Palestinians would cross into the West Bank from Jordan on Sunday, from where they would be taken to the Gaza Strip. Others would follow later, Abbas aide Nabil Amr said.