Israeli TV: Egypt pressures for delaying the exchange deal
[ 20/12/2009 - 10:51 AM ]
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- The Egyptian government is responsible for delaying the prisoners' exchange deal between Hamas and Israel, the Israeli 2nd TV channel claimed.
It said on its website on Saturday that Cairo told Tel Aviv that the completion of the deal at the present moment would only boost Hamas's popularity not only in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank but all over the Arab and Islamic world.
The Egyptian government has officially asked the Israeli government to postpone the deal, it asserted.
American media had charged Israel with impeding conclusion of the swap deal while other media sources said that the deal hit an impasse over 50 prisoners that Israel did not agree to release.
20/12/2009 The Israeli ministerial team negotiating the release of Gilad Shalit is reportedly split on whether to accept Hamas' terms for the deal.
The members of the ministerial team, along with envoy Hagai Hadash and a few senior officials in the defense establishment, are the only individuals receiving updates on indirect talks with Hamas, which are being mediated by a German broker.
A senior official in the U.S. administration told Israeli daily Haaretz that if the deal for Shalit's release is completed, the U.S. would be interested in seeing Israel releasing Fatah prisoners as well, in addition to other gestures to bolster's Fatah's status compared to Hamas. "We are telling the Israelis that [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas' situation needs to be mitigated," the U.S. official said.
Abbas said that the German mediator involved in negotiations for Shalit's release has threatened to quit unless a deal is reached within weeks. Abbas told the state-owned Egyptian daily Al Ahram that negotiations over the prisoner exchange were a matter exclusively between Israel and Hamas and the German and French mediators, and that he was not involved.
On Friday, Fox News reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been reluctant to sign a deal presented to him three weeks ago to secure Shalit's release, adding that the prime minister's seven senior cabinet members were divided over the proposed agreement.
The family of Gilad Shalit asked Netanyahu's bureau last night to confirm a number of recent reports on the state of negotiations with Hamas to secure the captured Israeli soldier's release.
Activists in the campaign to free the Israeli occupation soldier, as well as the Shalit family, say that up to this point, they haven't received an answer or any other information from the Israeli prime minister.
Meanwhile, a Hamas source told Ynet that "every time the deal comes close to being completed, Israel starts withdrawing and biding time in order to postpone agreements."
He said his organization had been flexible in the matter of the prisoners' deportation, and that Israel was currently preventing the deal from closing.
"Internal conflict in Israel, mostly around prominent prisoners, is preventing the talks from moving forward as well as a breakthrough that would allow the completion of the deal within a short time period," the source told Ynet.
Moreover, the Gaza-based newspaper Palestine reported Saturday that Mohammed Nazzal, a senior Hamas official, said that the talks were frozen due to Israel's refusal to free a significant number of detainees whose release Hamas demands.
Nazzal went on to say that Israel is attempting to use disinformation to influence the Palestinian public and the families of Palestinian detainees to exert pressure on Hamas. He said Hamas seeks a "respectable deal" and the release of the maximum number of Palestinian detainees.
An Israeli source "familiar with the negotiations" was quoted by Fox as suggesting that the German mediator was biased in favor of Hamas. "Israel is being played by the German mediator," the source reportedly told Fox News. "And he seems to be more favorable to Hamas, possibly because of the German government's economic ties with Iran, known to be Hamas's financial and ideological backer."
"Time kills all deals," the unnamed Israeli source added.
The Fox report also quoted an Egyptian source as confirming that talks had been stalled and were awaiting a formal Israeli response for the past three weeks.
Egyptian intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman will visit Tel Aviv Sunday to discuss the Middle East peace process, according to an Al-Hayat report published on Friday. Though Egypt has been involved in talks for Shalit's release, Suleiman visit is not expected to focus on the deal for the release of Shalit Hamas captured more than three years ago. The report in Al-Hayat quoted Suleiman as saying that the impasse in the peace process was weakening so-called “the moderates” in the Middle East, which could adversely affect the entire region. He reiterated that Israel must immediately stop all settlement construction.
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