Sharon-Qorei Meeting Soon
A senior official traveling with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Moscow told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Monday that the Israeli Premier may meet his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qorei "within days".
Palestinian sources also told AFP that Finance Minister Salam Fayad had met with Israel’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz late last week, without giving details.
Israeli media also reported that the head of the internal security service Shin Beth had met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s national security advisor Jibril Rajoub over the weekend.
Rajoub, however, denied that he had met with Shin Beth’s Avi Dichter, telling AFP that "I am not against meetings but I have not met with any Israeli official."
There have been increasing signs of a thaw in relations as the Palestinian Premier prepares to unveil an enlarged government later this week.
Qorei has made the securing of a mutual ceasefire with Israel the top priority of his new government and his efforts received a major boost late Sunday when the political leader of the Islamic Hamas movement said that it could halt its attacks on civilians in Israel if Israel stops attacking Palestinian civilians.
"It is possible that Hamas will propose during a meeting with Abu Alaa (Qorei) continuing the resistance but sparing civilians from both sides from the horrors of war," Abdul Aziz-Rantissi told AFP.
But the Palestinian resistance leader ruled out renewing the unilateral truce with Israel, asserting that the step could not be taken while the Israeli aggressions went on non-stop.
"There are neither external pressures being exercised on Hamas, and Egypt in particular, nor talks with Qorei to renew the truce," he said.
"It is pointless to renew the truce, because it would play well in the hands of the Israeli government. The Zionist enemy, in effect, is paying the price for usurping and occupying our land," he added.
Rantissi has been in hiding since Israel attempted to kill him in a helicopter strike in June.
He has been always rejecting the possibility of negotiating a new truce after the death of one of Hamas top leaders Ismail Abu Shanab, which prompted the factions into formally calling off the fragile truce.
The Palestinian Premier, for his part, stressed that he was seeking an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire and not just a unilateral truce by Palestinian resistance groups.
A report released by a Palestinian human rights organization revealed in August that Israel had carried out 854 violations of the truce. (Click to see a breakdown for Israeli violations).
Qorei has been heading an eight-man emergency government since the beginning of last month but its term of office is due to expire on Tuesday. He is then expected to form an enlarged cabinet containing some 24 members.
