|
Tiri, Lebanon: French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday a deal to end the Israeli offensive in Gaza was "not far" away.
"I'm convinced that there are solutions. We are not far from that. What is needed is simply for one of the players to start for things to go in the right direction," he told reporters during a visit to French UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon.
Sarkozy said he was returning to Sharm Al Shaikh to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to work out the details of a peace plan.
"I do not know if it will work. I am telling you that I am trying and if I am going back there [Sharm Al Shaikh] it is because there is a small hope."
Sarkozy had said on Monday that he was working on an initiative with Egypt but declined to give details because of "extremely complex negotiations".
Sarkozy also called on Syria to help convince Hamas to cooperate in international efforts to end the Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip.
Without naming the Palestinian Islamist group, Sarkozy said that he "didn't have any doubt" that Syria would help convince Hamas to agree to a deal.
Sarkozy was speaking after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus. Syria, along with Iran, is a main backer of Hamas.
The Red Cross said on Tuesday that an ambulance post was hit during what it called the most terrifying night of violence yet in Gaza, while the UN reported a half-dozen Palestinian medical workers dead amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Egypt has stepped up pressure on the Syria-based Hamas leadership to accept a ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza, Egyptian officials close to the negotiations said yesterday.
The pressure came during talks between Egypt's influential intelligence chief Omar Sulaiman, and a delegation of the Hamas leaders in Cairo on Tuesday.
The Egyptian side wants Hamas to cooperate with regional and international efforts to end the Gaza conflict, now in its 11th day, the officials said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
"The message Hamas is getting [from Sulaiman] is that without a ceasefire the Palestinians will be in a grave danger and everything they have achieved so far will be gone," said one of the Egyptian officials.
Framework
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit said on Monday that Hamas officials based in Syria - Mohammad Nasr and Imad Al Alami - flew in on Monday to discuss ways to "realise a ceasefire".
"Part of a framework for a ceasefire agreement is to have Israel stop the aggression and pull out.
"In exchange, we will get the approval of Hamas and other factions to stop the rockets," Aboul Gheit told Al Arabiya television network.
Meanwhile, the US would like to see an immediate ceasefire in Gaza that would hold up over time, a State Department spokesman said yesterday.
"We would like an immediate ceasefire, absolutely," State Department spokes-man Sean McCormack said. "An immediate ceasefire that is durable, sustainable and not time-limited."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to travel to New York later on Tuesday to meet with Arab ministers and lobby for a US-backed ceasefire plan, a senior State Department official said.
Meeting
Rice is also expected to represent the Bush administration during a UN Security Council meeting on efforts to bring an end to the Israeli army's occupation of the Gaza Strip and the deluge of missiles launched by Hamas at Israeli towns.
According to the State official, Rice will meet with US allies and several foreign ministers from Arab states to push a three-pronged US strategy to curb rocket attacks, halt the fighting and secure border crossings.
Rice plans to discuss the situation with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the foreign minister of Turkey and others arriving at the UN.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Arab League accused the US of blocking a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Arab foreign ministers who went to the UN's New York headquarters to lobby for a resolution are "facing difficulties and obstacles because of the US supportive stance toward Israel", said Mohammad Subaih, Arab League deputy secretary general for Palestinian affairs.
|
