Fighting talks
Dina Ezzat examines the dynamics of Palestinian factional dialogue and combat
A man gets into his car with his daughter. He talks to her a little before he turns on the radio to listen to the news. The news announces another round of talks between Fatah and Hamas under the auspices of the Egyptian security delegation. Fighting on Gaza's streets and dialogue at the offices of Egyptian General Intelligence in Cairo are simultaneous. The man resumes chatting with his daughter and drives on.
This is what one Egyptian official described as a possible scene in a future film about the life of an Egyptian in Cairo in the first decade of the second millennium. "The news on the radio of factions fighting and talking will simply indicate the time in which the scene takes place -- 2005, 2006 or 2007. This is the permanent news fixture of these years," he said. He added that the second item on the news broadcast could be "the efforts of Egypt to secure a deal between Palestinians and Israelis to allow for the release of Palestinian prisoners and [captured Israeli soldier Gilad] Shalit."
Sadly, this is not fiction, the situation exacerbated by frequent Israeli incursions and the launching of Qassam rockets at illegal Israeli settlements. So far, Egyptian officials admit, talks sponsored by Egypt on both the inter-Palestinian front and the Palestinian- Israeli front have fallen short of stemming the grave deterioration of security in Gaza, even on a short-term basis.
This week, as Egypt was receiving Palestinian faction delegates in Cairo for talks on stabilising the Palestinian front and striking a possible truce between Palestinians and Israel, and while the permanent Egyptian security delegation in Gaza was conducting round the clock talks with the two main warring factions, Fatah and Hamas, inter-factional killing are ongoing, exacting a considerable civilian and political toll.
As the headquarters of Fatah Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh were being targeted in inter-Palestinian fighting, the date for Egyptian-sponsored Fatah-Hamas talks was again set back, now from late June to early July. As the fighting continued, the chances of reaching a deal on a potential truce with Israel appeared again hampered, resulting in Egyptian-Israeli talks on the matter being put off temporarily.
Egyptian diplomats meanwhile hope that the expansion of inter-Palestinian dialogue to include close to 15 factions, rather than a limited list of five, will help Cairo reach its objective of securing a truce that could allow for the finalisation of a prisoner swap and reform of the long- moribund Palestine Liberation Organisation along the lines of an expanded representative base to include all Palestinian factions and allow for coordinated Palestinian decision-making.
"The level of poverty and suffering in Gaza is really very disturbing, and Egypt is very worried about further deterioration in Gaza," said one Egyptian official who requested anonymity. According to this official, who is close to the talks being conducted in Cairo, there are numerous and excessive disagreements among the factions. The main problem, he explained, is between Fatah and Hamas. "Due to the many conflicting regional affiliations involved, not to mention conflicting political agendas, it is proving hard to reconcile these differences," he said. He added that there is growing awareness in many concerned quarters that any deal cut in Cairo is likely to reduce rather than end Palestinian infighting.
Delegates of the factions who took part in the sponsored talks argued that the main reason that fighting is unlikely to be fully ended, even for a few months, is that political leaders have lost control over those who do the fighting. This loss of control, they argue, applies to Fatah more than to Hamas.
Meanwhile, some of the Palestinian political leaders who were in Cairo for talks voiced growing concern over what they qualified as the "modest" influence of Egypt over Hamas. They deemed the political statement made by Haniyeh last Friday, where he proposed a five- point agenda to check the inter-Palestinian violence, as Hamas deviation from Egyptian proposals. While Egypt, with the support of Fatah, proposes it arbitrate between the fighting factions in Gaza, Haniyeh overlooked this proposal almost all together, one said.
Egyptian officials say they are aware of concerns entertained by Hamas over closer links between Cairo and Fatah than with Hamas. They say they are trying to assuage such concerns. But they admit it has not been easy, in part due to the simple fact that Egypt is not in agreement with Hamas over its militant approach towards the struggle with Israel.
Nonetheless, Egypt believes it has to keep talking to Palestinians, Israelis and others. As such, and against a very unfavourable political and security context, Cairo is going ahead with plans to host a series of regional/international meetings on the Arab-Israeli conflict later this month. Four sets of meetings are slated to take place. The first is a scheduled meeting bringing together Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. King Abdullah of Jordan, who was in Cairo Tuesday for talks with President Mubarak on Palestinian-Israeli developments, might join the meeting.
The second meeting will bring together the International Quartet on the Middle East (the US, EU, UN and Russia), the Palestinians and Israel. It is not clear so far whether Olmert and Abbas will attend or if they will dispatch envoys. The meeting has the aim of reaching a Palestinian-Israeli agreement on the security front, which in turn may allow for preliminary political talks.
The third meeting would bring together the International Quartet and the nine members of an Arab League group mandated to discuss a possible resumption of peace talks. This meeting is aimed to allow the Quartet to respond to a proposal made by the Arab group in an earlier meeting that an international conference be scheduled on the resumption of peace talks in the Middle East on the basis of the Arab peace initiative.
The fourth meeting will be confined to members of the International Quartet, who held their last meeting in Berlin 30 May. This meeting should allow for the Quartet to decide future management of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
This week, in separate press statements, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa voiced low expectations of the upcoming meetings. Both insisted, however, that it is necessary to continue engaging key international players.
Egypt proposed Wednesday to the Arab League to convene an urgent meeting at the level of permanent representatives to consider a collective Arab stance on the explosive developments in the Palestinian territories. A ministerial meeting might follow in a few days.
Recommend
Comment
Printer-friendly
