"Redbaiter" <don't@no-spam> wrote in message
news:3efbb67e@no-spam
>
> `Road map is a life saver for us,' PM Abbas tells Hamas
>
> By Arnon Regular
>
>
>
> Selected minutes acquired by Haaretz from one of
> last week's cease-fire negotiations between
> Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and
> faction leaders from the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and
> the Popular and Democratic Fronts, reveal some of
> the factors at play behind the scenes in the
> effort to achieve a hudna.
>
>
>
>
> Abbas opened the session after
> hearing scathing criticism from
> faction leaders for his Aqaba
> speech in which he defined
> their activities as
> "terrorism." He began with a
> broad review of his two
> meetings with Prime Minister
> Ariel Sharon and the Aqaba
> summit.
>
>
> "After seven days we did not reach agreement in
> Cairo on either the hudna or the united
> leadership. These points were later discussed
> in contacts in Gaza and in my view, the two
> points are the ones that should be on the
> table."
>
> Abbas said: "The descriptions of what happened
> at Sharm el Sheikh and in Aqaba are vague in
> parts and in some parts are inventions, so this
> is an opportunity to talk about what happened
> since the PA accepted the road map on December
> 20," he said. "Despite our reservations we
> decided not to make them an obstacle, believing
> that the road map was a life saver for a tiger
> whose head was caught in the neck of the
> bottle."
>
> Abbas said "we were told that [President George
> ] Bush is committed to the establishment of a
> viable Palestinian state beside the state of
> Israel, so based on our saying that we are
> ready to try that experiment, that is what was
> determined."
>
> He explained to the faction leaders that with
> regard to the first phase of the road map,
> there was an agreement with the Americans that
> "the Palestinians would speak publicly about
> their commitments according to the map and then
> the Israelis would do the same thing." From
> there, he moved on to describe what happened at
> the summits. He said that Bush told the Arab
> leaders that he is fully committed to a
> solution based on his vision speech from June
> 24, 2002 and is ready to move forward "if there
> is help on your part."
>
> "The Arabs supported him and I said we are ready
> to fulfill our commitments as they appear in
> the map," said Abbas. He said the discussion of
> the start of the implementation of the map
> dealt with Gaza, where he said that Palestinian
> Authority institutions "are 75 percent
> destroyed, while in the West Bank they are 100
> percent destroyed."
>
> He emphasized that at that stage he made clear
> to the participants at the Sharm summit that
> "we need time and capabilities to stand on our
> feet. And I explained that I had already spoken
> with Ariel Sharon about reaching a hudna
> between all the Palestinian factions."
> According to Abbas, "Bush exploded with anger
> and said `there can be no deals with terror
> groups.' We told him that they are part of our
> people and we cannot deal with them in any
> other way. We cannot begin with repression,
> under no circumstances, and I made clear to
> Bush that Sharon already agreed with that."
>
> He said that he presented Bush with the
> deliberations about the hudna that he had with
> Sharon in Jerusalem after he was appointed
> prime minister. He explained to Bush that the
> dialogue between the Palestinian factions that
> began in Cairo and continued in Gaza were on
> the verge of completion. He said that Bush said
> "a case-fire is not the whole story" - Bush
> meant that a hudna is only the start of the
> process of disarming the groups.
>
> Abbas outlined the political contacts during the
> Aqaba summit and said he added the prisoner
> issue at the three-way session with Bush and
> Sharon. "I told them the prisons are the
> election district for a campaign of calm in the
> Palestinian territories." He said Bush then
> turned to Sharon "with the following words,
> `look what you can profit from this, that
> holding onto the prisoners only creates
> tension.'"
>
> Abbas said: "We were asked what we need if
> Israel withdraws and we said `that there not be
> raids, chases, assassinations or house
> demolitions, because that kind of activity will
> destroy everything.'"
>
> Abbas tried to placate the faction leaders by
> telling them that Palestinian Security Minister
> Mohammed Dahlan had raised the exact same
> issues with John Wolf, the American monitor of
> the road map. He tried to explain that in the
> wake of the failed attempt on Abdel Aziz
> Rantisi's life, the PA was now insisting on an
> end to the assassinations.
>
> He went on to explain his speech in Aqaba. "We
> did not speak of our rights but only of our
> commitments. Bush was impressed by that and
> mentioned the prisoners and settlements in his
> speech." On the matter of the right of return,
> Abbas said "that right appears in all the
> previous initiatives, and is not under
> discussion now. Bush asked, if that's the case,
> why mention the settlements now, and I told him
> the settlements are happening now. The Israelis
> use the excuse of natural growth and I told
> them that according to U.S. statistics, 33
> percent of settlements are empty. We said the
> growth should happen westward, and not on our
> territory."
>
> Abbas said that at Aqaba, Bush promised to speak
> with Sharon about the siege on Arafat. He said
> nobody can speak to or pressure Sharon except
> the Americans.
>
> According to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush
> said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I
> struck them, and then he instructed me to
> strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am
> determined to solve the problem in the Middle
> East. If you help me I will act, and if not,
> the elections will come and I will have to
> focus on them."
>
>
>
>
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=310788&contrassID=2&su
> bContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
>
>
>
and your point is?