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 | | From: | AP | | Subject: | Abbas Ready to Meet Security Commitments | | Date: | Thu, 13 Jan 2005 9:10:26 EST |
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*Associated Press/AP Online
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said
Thursday that he is ready to honor the security commitments in an
internationally backed peace plan, adding that he hopes to resume
peace talks with Israel soon.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops opened fire on a car,
killing a Palestinian man who was driving his pregnant neighbor to a
hospital. Soldiers said they fired after the car headed toward them
and the driver ignored calls to stop.
Abbas, elected Palestinian president earlier this week, said
he is eager to restart talks on the "road map," a peace
plan backed by the United States, European Union, Russia and the
United States.
The plan, which envisions an independent Palestinian state
alongside Israel, has been stalled since it was launched in mid-2003
amid violations by both sides. The road map requires Israel to
freeze settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza, while
Palestinians must dismantle militant groups.
"We emphasize before you that we are committing to the
road map," Abbas said after a meeting with local and
international Christian leaders.
"As you know, this plan starts with security
commitments and eventually deals with the final status issues, like
borders and Jerusalem. We are ready to implement our commitments. We
hope the Israeli side will do the same," he added.
Abbas did not specify what sort of security measures he is
ready to take. He has rejected Israeli calls to confront militants,
preferring instead to persuade them to halt their attacks.
Abbas will have a difficult time moving forward without an
agreement with the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In
public, the groups have rejected calls for a cease-fire but have
signaled they are open to the idea if Abbas can guarantee their
safety from Israel. Abbas appears to have wide public support from a
Palestinian public weary from more than four years of fighting with
Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this week called Abbas,
the first direct contacts between Israeli and Palestinian leaders
since 2003, and said he expected talks on security matters to begin
soon.
Abbas is to be sworn into office on Saturday. He said that
soon after he forms a new government "there will be contacts
with Israel that will start with calm and security, and then move to
the other issues."
Sharon, who shunned Yasser Arafat, has said he would be
willing to coordinate his planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip
with the new Palestinian leadership. The withdrawal was initially
proposed as a unilateral initiative after the road map fizzled.
Sharon this week formed a new coalition government with the
dovish Labor Party to bolster support for the withdrawal, which is
to begin in July.
Sharon was to meet with an ultra-Orthodox party on Thursday
to try to broaden his coalition further. Sharon has been trying to
expand his government to neutralize "rebels" in his Likud
Party who oppose the Gaza withdrawal plan.
Abbas called Labor's inclusion in the Israeli government a
"good sign," adding that he hopes the Gaza withdrawal will
be the first step toward carrying out the road map.
Since Arafat died on Nov. 11, there has been a drop in
fighting, although the violence has continued.
On Thursday, Israeli troops shot at a car in the northern
Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, killing the driver. The man had been
driving his pregnant neighbor to give birth at a hospital.
At the time, soldiers were conducting an arrest raid in Beit
Lahiya. The army said soldiers opened fire because the car headed
toward them and the driver ignored calls to stop.
The driver was taking the woman and her husband to the
hospital, doctors said. The husband was moderately wounded with a
gunshot wound to the shoulder, they said. The woman gave birth to a
boy shortly after the incident.
Also in Gaza, Israeli troops killed a 24-year-old
Palestinian man near the Bureij refugee camp, Palestinian hospital
and security officials said.
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