Solana pledges continued EU role in Mideast peace (Roundup)

Jan 27, 2009, 13:44 GMT

Cairo - EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana on Tuesday pledged that Europe would continue working to secure a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas, to deliver aid to Palestinians, and to help broker a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions.

Speaking after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Cairo, and Miloslav Stasek, the Czech Republic's ambassador to Cairo, Solana told reporters that the first priority must be 'to achieve a lasting ceasefire and truce between Palestinians and Israel.'

Europe 'would do (its) best to continue to be among the most important donors of humanitarian aid' to the Palestinians, Solana pledged.

As they spoke, reports said that a bomb blast had killed one Israeli soldier and wounded three others near the Gaza border on Tuesday morning. Israeli troops shelled houses near the area in response, killing a Palestinian farmer, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

Despite the violence, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said he expected Hamas and Israel would agree to a long-term truce next week, to be followed by a Palestinian national dialogue aimed forming a unified Palestinian government by the end of February.

'Egyptian efforts towards a truce indicate that we can reach a lasting ceasefire in the first week of February, which will lead to the opening the Rafah border,' Aboul Gheit told reporters Tuesday.

Aboul Gheit went on to say that Egypt would then strive for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the feuding Palestinian political factions.

'If we can reach agreements during the last week of February, this will pave the way for the reconstruction of Gaza,' Aboul Gheit said. 'Then the peace process can be put back on track in cooperation with the US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell.'

Aboul Gheit's remarks echoed calls for Palestinian reconciliation from Azzam al-Ahmed, the head of a Fatah delegation to Cairo who on Monday participated in the first meeting between Hamas and Fatah leaders since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

'Fatah and all of the Palestinian factions agreed to Egypt's call for a national Palestinian dialogue last November. The party that refused to participate was Hamas,' al-Ahmed told the Palestine News Agency on Tuesday.

'Our message to our brothers in Hamas is to stop this dispute, and act with responsibility towards the nation. Do not live in illusions,' al-Ahmed said, repeating his call to Hamas to join Fatah for talks on forming a unity government.

Another Palestinian faction, the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said it would declare a truce with Israel as of February 5 and called on all Palestinian factions to come together to negotiate a long-term truce with Israel that would include Gaza and the West Bank, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported Monday night.

Solana will meet US Mideast envoy George Mitchell in Cairo Tuesday before leaving to continue his two-day tour of the region in Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.