Israeli, Palestinian leaders announce cease-fire

Sharon and new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas agree to a cease-fire in the hope of restarting peace talks that failed under former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat.

By LARA SUKHTIAN
The Associated Press

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt, Feb. 8 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared Tuesday that their people would stop all military or violent activity, pledging to break the four-year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, right, and Palestinian Autority President Mahmoud Abbas, shake hands prior to their delegations' meeting at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. (AP)

With the flags of their countries whipping in the wind, Sharon and Abbas met face-to-face at a Mideast summit Tuesday. Afterward, Abbas said: "We have agreed on halting all violent actions against Palestinians and Israelis wherever they are."

Sharon made a similar pledge.

"Today, in my meeting with chairman Abbas, we agreed that all Palestinians will stop all acts of violence against all Israelis everywhere, and, at the same time, Israel will cease all its military activity against all Palestinians everywhere," he said.

Abbas said it was time for the Palestinian people to regain their freedom.

"A new opportunity for peace is born today in the city of peace. Let's pledge to protect it," Abbas said, referring to the nickname of Sharm el-Sheik earned through past peace summits.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who summoned the two leaders and has been a key mediator throughout the process, said both sides showed a serious desire to "work together truly and sincerely."

"The challenges today are large and deep, but the mission is not impossible. If the road is long, we today took the first step," Mubarak said.

"The Palestinian and Israeli peoples equally deserve a secure life for the coming generations to enjoy, based on justice, international principles and good neighborliness," the Egyptian president added in a speech he said he was delivering on behalf of himself and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Mubarak also said there was now fresh hope for the Syrian-Lebanese peace track. Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations have been frozen since early 2000.

"Our goal is lasting peace in the Middle East, therefore, our movement will be followed by other moves to revive both the Syrian and Lebanese tracks," he said.

In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said that Sharon invited Abbas to his ranch in Southern Israel, and the Palestinian leader accepted, a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir did not say when the next Sharon-Abbas meeting would take place. Sharon owns Sycamore Ranch in Southern Israel, near the Gaza Strip.

Meir, who attended Tuesday's summit, said "there was a great atmosphere in the talks ... smiles and joking."

An invitation to both sides to meet separately with President Bush at the White House this spring added momentum on the eve of the summit.

Top Sharon aide Raanan Gissin said that as part of Israel's halting of military operations, it would stop its controversial targeted killing operations against wanted Palestinians, as long as the Palestinians kept militants under control. Gissin noted Israeli flags, flying outside the summit convention center alongside the flags of Arab countries, calling it a sign of more hopeful times.

"But there's one thing that must be made very clear ... there will be no flexibility whatsoever, no compromise whatsoever on fighting terrorism," he said.

A Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip struck a cautionary note, saying the radical Islamic group, which has been responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israelis in the past four years, would evaluate the summit before committing itself to halting its campaign of violence.

"We agreed before with Mahmoud Abbas that if he succeeds to achieve our national goals, he should come back to the Palestinian factions to discuss the issue, and after that we will decide our stand," Mahmoud Zahar said.

The cease-fire was the clearest indication yet of momentum following Yasser Arafat's death, the election of Abbas and a signal from the White House that it plans a renewed push for peace.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking Tuesday during a visit to Rome, said there seems to be a will for peace in the Middle East, but warned the road ahead is long.

Rice also urged the new Palestinian leadership to move resolutely to control violence against Israel by its own people. She acknowledged the limits of the Palestinian security forces, but said "there are places where they can act."

She said when the Palestinian forces arrest someone, they should hold him, when they see a bombmaking facility they should destroy it and when they see smuggling they should stop it.

In the hours before the summit began, the Israeli military said Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli military vehicle moving along the security fence surrounding the Gush Katif bloc of Jewish settlements in southern Gaza. No injuries or damage were reported. Israeli troops also arrested two Hamas members near the West Bank town of Jenin, the army said, adding that this arrest, like others in the past 10 days, was carried out with the specific approval of the army chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon.

Israelis also briefly sealed off the West Bank town of Nablus, preventing Palestinians from leaving.

Sharon's visit angered some Egyptians, and university students led by Islamic student groups demonstrated peacefully on their campuses Monday and Tuesday. At Cairo University, about 350 students burned Israeli and American flags and shouted against Sharon. One banner read: "Receiving Sharon is a shame on Egypt."

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the agreement also included the establishment of joint committees _ one to determine criteria for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, and the other to oversee the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities on the West Bank.

The senior Israeli official said that after Sharon's declaration of an end to military operations, the two sides would go back to operating as they did before the 2000 outbreak of fighting. In Palestinian-controlled areas, including most of Gaza and eventually most West Bank towns, the Israelis would coordinate with Palestinian security forces if they wanted to arrest someone.

It was not clear what rules would apply in towns, like Jenin and Nablus, that continue to be under Israeli security control for now.

Significant steps have been taken since Arafat's death to reconcile Israel's primary concern of security with Arabs' main objective of getting the "road map" on the fast track.

Abbas has deployed police to keep the peace in Gaza, ordered arrests of some operatives and appears to have won pledges from militants to halt attacks on Israel.

On the Israeli side, the government is pledging to free 900 of the about 8,000 Palestinian prisoners it has in custody and gradually pull out of five Palestinian towns on the West Bank.

Story produced by
Beth Jenkins