-
-
Related
Egypt has ruled out the possibility of allowing international troops to deploy on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza as part of a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas movement which runs Gaza.
"Nobody is talking about international troops (in Egypt). We are talking about arrangements and measures. There will be no international troops of any kind on the Egyptian side," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told a news conference.
Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who runs the West Bank but not Gaza, supported the Egyptian position, saying an international force should not deploy even on the border.
A senior official of Hamas repeated the position of the Islamist movement, which opposes the presence of international observers throughout the Gaza Strip.
"We cannot accept international forces in the Gaza Strip because the presence of international forces would be for the protection of the Israelis, and not the protection of the Palestinian people," Mohammed Nazzal of Hamas told Al Jazeera.
European and Israeli diplomats have said the international force is part of the package that mediators are trying to put together to end the last two weeks of violence between Israel and Hamas. At least 821 Palestinians and and 13 Israelis have been killed in the fighting.
Israel's main demand is for a new mechanism to prevent Hamas receiving weapons smuggled through tunnels under the 15 km of border between Egypt and Gaza.
Diplomats have also suggested that international forces could supervise the operation of the border crossings and monitor a truce between Israel and Hamas.
Technical assistance
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Egypt had received no request for forces to deploy in Egypt. "No one has asked for this, and this is a non-issue for us," he said.
Abbas, after talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said: "We want an international presence in the Gaza Strip, and not on the Egypt-Gaza border."
"If they say in the West Bank and Gaza, we say yes, ... (but) it is not between the borders of Egypt and Rafah. We basically want to spare the blood of our people," he added.
The diplomats said Egypt was however ready to accept technical assistance for its own forces on the border. Israel says the Egyptians have failed in the past to prevent Hamas building up an arsenal of hundreds of rockets.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is also visiting Egypt, said on Saturday that Germany would send a team to Egypt to assess ways of enhancing Egyptian anti-smuggling efforts on the border with the Gaza Strip.
"We agreed in the next few days a group from Germany will travel to Egypt to see how we can help equip police and provide training," he told reporters after talks with Aboul Gheit.
The Egyptian minister said: "We can assure the Israelis that nothing is happening (in the way of smuggling). If this can be used to tell Israel they don't have a claim, so be it."
"If there was smuggling, it was for food. That is very logical for people under siege," Aboul Gheit added.
President Mubarak had said that Hamas receives most of its weaponry by sea, not across the border with Egypt.
Egypt already has international forces on its side of the border with Israel as part of the peace treaty it signed with the Jewish state in 1979.
But Zaki said that force was not relevant as a precedent. "It's like apples and oranges," he added.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentfarhatmirza said on 2009-01-21 @ 09:43 NZDT: Report abusive post
Dear Sir/Madam, If and when the information is declassified, it may come out that the connection between 'shoe-treatment' of G.Bush in Iraq and, the carnage if not the genocide that followed in Ghaza, was not, after all, the figment of ones imagination. Regards, fjm
sheildzee said on 2009-01-20 @ 19:34 NZDT: Report abusive post
Please report accurately. Hamas did not "seize control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah forces in 2007 ...". You rightly state that Hamas won the general election so Hamas did not "seize" anything. Your point about Fatah is superfluous anyway so just stick to the facts - " Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people in democratic elections held in 2006." That is the truth. The power struggle that followed the democratic election of Hama is another issue entirely.
flyer said on 2009-01-19 @ 16:50 NZDT: Report abusive post
Whew, a ceasefire of sorts - obviously the protest of the southland cafe owner against Israeli women has brought everyone to the negotiating table - AS IF.....
farhatmirza said on 2009-01-19 @ 11:42 NZDT: Report abusive post
Dear Sir/Madam, To say that Israel funded Hamas looks improbable, if not ridiculous. However, I won't be surprised if Hamas took a cue of two from Hagana, Irgun, or Lehi. Regards, fjm
philipmcc said on 2009-01-19 @ 10:01 NZDT: Report abusive post
I feel sad enough about the Gaza protagonists each claiming that they are the 'good guys' and the others are the 'bad guys', and the suffering that creates. But as I read these comments I see the same human tendency being acted out. So many claim that their view is 'right' and the others are 'wrong'. This stance is a major factor in all conflict. While that fear-based tendency persists we will go on having wars like Gaza.