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Four-year-old
Mohammed-Al Jabour holds a photo of his father Tahir-Al Jabour,
who is being held in an Israeli jail
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, July 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Heated
talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian
counterpart Mahmud Abbas ended without a commitment Sunday, July 20,
from Israel to release more Palestinian prisoners in its jails.
Instead
the two sides agreed to form a joint committee which would
"consider" the numbers of Palestinian prisoners who
should be released from Israeli jails, Palestinian information
minister Nabil Amr said according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The
most positive thing that we agreed about was that the number of
prisoners which we must be released will be discussed in a joint
committee," the minister told reporters after briefing
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the talks which Amr also attended.
It
is understood that Palestinian prisoners minister Hisham Abdelrazeq
and Avi Dichter, the head of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency,
will sit on the committee.
"It
was a useful meeting and I hope that we will see good results in the
coming period," Amr said.
However,
another source close to Abbas said that the talks had been stormy,
dominated by the plight of the veteran Palestinian leader Arafat who
has been effectively confined to his headquarters in the West Bank
city of Ramallah by Israeli forces for the last 19 months.
"It
was a difficult meeting. At many points they screamed at each other.
"The
main topic was the siege on Arafat. Abu Mazen (Abbas' nom-de-guerre)
and his team told Sharon and the Israelis that any talk about moving
ahead the situation on the ground without lifting the siege would be
useless."
"Study
Seriously"
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A
source close to Abbas said that the talks had been stormy
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Israel
had agreed to "study seriously" an end to the siege of
Arafat, he added.
The
same source said that the two sides had clashed on the prisoners
issue.
"The
Israelis were talking about lists and categories and the Palestinians
refused that and said any discussion on prisoner releases should be
(among) the two sides," he said.
Israel
has so far refused to countenance the release of more than 350 of the
estimated 6,000 Palestinians in its jails.
There
had been expectations that Sharon would seek to bolster Abbas'
position by allowing the release of a small number of activists from
the resistance groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas which are currently
observing a truce,
which comes with a raft of conditions including the release of all
detainees.
The
two sides also discussed Palestinian demands for further Israeli troop
withdrawals from the West Bank after pullbacks in the Gaza Strip and
Bethlehem in recent weeks as well as a removal of army checkpoints.
"We
discussed about the checkpoints and cities and we declared that we are
ready to control any city which Israel withdraws from," said Amr.
Palestinian
security chief Mohammed Dahlan and Israeli defense minister Shaul
Mofaz are expected to discuss the withdrawals after Dahlan's return
from a trip to Washington with Abbas who is to meet U.S. President
George W. Bush on Friday, July 25.
Mofaz
told a weekly cabinet meeting ahead of the Abbas-Sharon talks that
there had been a downturn in violence since a security agreement
between the two sides three weeks ago which led to the pullback of
Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem.
That
agreement was followed shortly afterwards by the truce announcement.
"He
(Mofaz) pointed out that on the ground, the downward trend in the
number of "terrorist" attacks and warnings is continuing.
Incitement in the Palestinian media has similarly declined," said
a cabinet communiqué.
"Following
Israeli measures to ease restrictions, there has been a significant
improvement in the atmosphere on the Palestinian street in the areas
in which responsibility has been transferred to the
Palestinians."
The
Abbas-Sharon meeting marked the first phase in a flurry of activity
which will take the two leaders to Washington in the coming days.
Before
arriving in the U.S. on Wednesday, July 23, Abbas will also hold talks
with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah in Jordan
about the U.S.-backed " roadmap"
for peace.
Abbas
is spearheading Palestinian negotiations after Israel and the U.S.
refused to deal with Arafat who has been accused by Sharon of trying
to undermine his prime minister and the peace process.
The
veteran leader issued a decree Sunday banning any incitement to
violence, one of the demands of the roadmap.
