Egypt”s U.N. ambassador said Wednesday that representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas agreed to meet separately with Egyptian officials Thursday for talks on the Gaza crisis.
Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz told reporters that “representatives of all sides” planned to send technical delegations to Cairo to discuss an Egyptian-French initiative to end the fighting in Gaza.
He said the delegations would each meet with Egyptian officials, but the parties would not necessarily sit down in the same room together.
Details of the plan aren”t clear, but the initiative calls for a limited cease-fire in the Israeli-Hamas fighting to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit confirmed that the Islamic militant group Hamas had been invited, but added that “if they come” their representatives will not meet in the same room as Israel”s.
“There will be an Israeli team coming to Cairo. I will not go beyond” that, Gheit said. It will be “a meeting between the Egyptians and Israelis, but not between the Israelis and Hamas,” he said.
Israel regards Hamas as a terrorist group and refuses to negotiate with it. Officials in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert”s office refused to comment on the Egyptian announcement.
They referred to a statement from Olmert”s office earlier Wednesday thanking Egypt and France for their truce efforts and welcoming a dialogue between Egyptian and Israeli officials.
A second statement said a meeting had been arranged between Israeli and Egyptian officials. Meetings with Palestinians were not mentioned in either statement.
