Occupied Jerusalem: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will insist US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exert pressure on Israel to stop construction of colonies during her visit this week, an aide to Abbas said on Monday.
Also yesterday, senior Hamas officials travelled to Cairo in the latest leg of intense Egyptian efforts to squeeze a ceasefire out of Israel and Hamas.
Rice was slated to arrive in Israel later on Saturday and hold separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the West Bank on Sunday. The visit is part of the intense US effort to prod the sides toward a final peace agreement by the end of the year.
But that deadline meant to coincide with the end of US President George W. Bush's term has appeared increasingly unrealistic of late with little visible progress in the negotiations.
Yesterday, Palestinians said Abbas would raise the latest announcement with Rice in a meeting today.
"Especially the issue of the new [colonies] will be discussed," Abbas aide Nimr Hamad said. "The United States should exert real pressure on Israel and not just make statements. That's what we'll ask for from Secretary Rice."
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said yesterday that Israel was looking forward to "constructive talks" with Rice. He did not elaborate.
Senior Hamas officials Mousa Abu Marzouk and Mohammad Naser travelled yesterday to Cairo where they were slated to meet the key mediator, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Sulaiman, said Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha. Two Hamas figures from Gaza passed through a land crossing into Egypt yesterday to participate in the talks, said another spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri.
In a sign of the ongoing tensions in the West Bank between Jewish colonists and Palestinians, an Israeli human rights group said yesterday a video it released showed colonists beating Palestinians as they tended their sheep.
The film shows four masked men beat one of the shepherds. The spokeswoman for B'tselem, Sarit Michaeli, said she was sure the attackers were colonists.
