Making his first trip abroad, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh Wednesday began talks with Egyptian officials on a prisoner
swap with Israel and the formation of a Palestinian coalition
government.
Arguments on the two issues have delayed attempts to relaunch
the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, in which Egypt is playing a
key role as mediator.
Haniyeh briefed Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on
the latest developments in the Palestinian territories as well as
discussing the prisoner exchange and the negotiations for a
coalition government, Egypt's semi-official Middle East News Agency
reported.
Haniyeh was scheduled to meet Arab League Secretary-General Amr
Moussa later in the day.
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The Palestinian leader, from the militant Hamas group, arrived in
Cairo late on Tuesday for talks with intelligence chief Omar
Suleiman, Egypt's point man for the Israeli-Palestinian
dispute.
Suleiman Wednesday flew to Israel where he held talks with
Defense Minister Amir Peretz on the prisoner exchange. He was due
to meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last night.
Israeli government officials say the two sides are far from a
deal. Hamas wants Israel to release, in three stages, 1,400
Palestinian prisoners in return for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli
soldier Hamas-linked militants captured in June.
Tomorrow, Haniyeh is expected to meet his Egyptian counterpart
Ahmed Nazif before leaving Egypt for a tour of Lebanon, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria and Iran.
Rice to meet Abbas
Haniyeh's Egypt trip comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice put Washington's heft behind the new peace overtures,
scheduling an unexpected meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas.
Israel and the Palestinians agreed on Saturday to a cease-fire
to end five months of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and Rice's visit
is being seen as a further push to use the momentum to start new
peace talks.
Rice, who is accompanying Bush on a trip to neighboring Jordan,
will meet Abbas today in the West Bank town of Jericho, said Saeb
Erekat, a top Abbas aide.
(China Daily November 30, 2006)
