“Meetings of Palestinian groups would continue in Cairo until a formula is adopted that would serve the Palestinian cause," said Mubarak

Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Staff

CAIRO, May 2 (IslamOnline.net) – Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are to meet in Cairo next week to resume talks that had began late in January, well informed Egyptian political sources told IslamOnline.net on Friday, May 2.

“The Egyptian government is to send out invitations for the meeting to the five main groups; Fatah, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP),” added the sources in exclusive statements to IOL.

The meeting, slated for early next week, will be attended by the “newly-appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and State Minister for Security Affairs Minister Mahmoud Dahlan,” according to the sources.

Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, vowed in his address before the Palestinian legislature to crack down on the violence raging in the Palestinian territories and collect illegal weapons.

But Palestinian resistance groups hit angrily at the statement, warning Abbas not to take on them for the sake of providing guarantees to Israel’s security and charging that “the Zionist occupation was terrorism personified.”

“The Cairo talks came against a background of an Egyptian-Syrian agreement to spur the new Palestinian government on to success,” the Egyptian political sources told IOL.

In a diplomatic shuttle to the Palestinian areas on Wednesday, April 23, the Egyptian intelligence chief managed to break a deadlock between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Abu Mazen over the appointment of Dahlan.

 “Serious Mistake”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Thursday, May 1, that his country would "continue efforts to unify the Palestinian ranks and that meetings of Palestinian groups would continue in Cairo until a formula is adopted that would serve the Palestinian cause."

But he warned in a newspaper interview that it would be a serious mistake for the international community to ignore Arafat.

"Egypt is one of the countries that has supported the Palestinians and president Arafat the most, and I think it is a serious mistake to not be in contact with Arafat, the Palestinian leader and founder of Fatah," the official daily Al-Akbhar quoted Mubarak as saying.

Israel and the U.S demanded that Arafat be sidelined, claiming he was an obstacle to peace efforts in the region.

Abas had said before his approval by the Palestinian Legislative Council that he would not travel abroad to meet foreign leaders unless Israel lifts restrictions on the movements of Arafat.

U.S. President George W. Bush said that he would invite the new Palestinian minister but not Arafat to the White House.

The Cairo meetings come at a very delicate time as the Palestinians and Israelis were issued with the long-waited “roadmap” peace plan, a three-staged plan which envisages the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.

Israel also intensified military aggressions against Palestinian-ruled areas, triggering vows of Palestinian resistance groups not to lay down their weapons until occupation ends.

Israel’s occupation forces stormed Thursday, May 1, a densely populated Gaza City area, cordoned off a four-storey building and massacres 13 Palestinians, including a two-year-old toddler and two teenagers, just to kill a “wanted” Hamas activist.