[ 02/06/2011 - 11:29 AM ] CAIRO, (PIC)-- Former Egyptian ambassador to Israel Mohammed Bassiouni has predicted that in the next few hours a prisoner exchange deal would be announced between Israel and Palestinian factions, the Egyptian daily Al-Mesryoon has reported.
Netanyahu's office has denied any breakthroughs in the issue in response to the report.
“Reaching a deal would see the release of soldier Gilad Shalit captured in the Gaza Strip since 2006 for the release of a thousand Palestinian captives in Israeli prisons,” Bassiouni told Al-Mesryoon Thursday.
“The time is just right to reach an agreement on the swap deal, especially after the signing of the Palestinian reconciliation deal, a deal Israel was counting on to go incomplete,” he said.
He said he believed that senior military ministry official Amos Gilad landed in Cairo to give Israel's agreement to release the prisoners that Palestinian factions wants released.
Gilad arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to take part in talks with Egyptian officials after Egypt's decision to permanently open the Rafah crossing on its borders with the Gaza Strip earlier this week.
For his part, Ibrahim al-Darawi, head of the Palestinian studies center in Cairo, told Al-Mesryoon that Egypt has the capabilities to effectively mediate the deal.
“I believe that Egypt after the revolution has enough potential to conclude the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the resistance forces, due to the respect they have among various parties. Also, the success of the prisoner exchange deal is a common interest to many parties,” he said.
Resheq denies prisoners exchange deal approaching
[ 02/06/2011 - 11:33 AM ]
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Political bureau member of Hamas Ezzet Al-Resheq has denied press reports claiming that a prisoners exchange deal between his movement and Israel was in the offing.
He held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the stalemate in the exchange deal, adding in a statement to the PIC on Thursday that the deal was at a standstill due to that government’s obstinacy.
Sources earlier told the PIC that a number of commanders of Hamas’s armed wing arrived in Cairo to discuss the exchange deal a few days ago topped by Ahmed Al-Ja’bari the commander of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, yet the Israeli obstinacy blocked concluding a deal.
Media outlets had quoted former Egyptian ambassador to Israel Mohammed Basyuni as saying that the deal was about to be clinched.
For his part, Ibrahim Al-Dirawi, the director of the Palestinian studies center in Cairo, did not expect a deal to be concluded within hours as reported by the media.
He confirmed, however, that Cairo handed Amos Gilad, the head of the Israeli army’s political and security department, on Wednesday demands of the Palestinian resistance, adding that the ball was now in the Israeli court.
Dirawi, in a statement to Quds Press, said that nature of the talks now going on over the issue was not known, but noted that the new Egyptian government was trying to achieve a breakthrough in this file similar to what it achieved in the Palestinian national reconciliation agreement.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment