PLO wil geen vredesakkoord zonder Gazastrook

 

Nog een obstakel dat de Palestijnen volgens dit artikel in het Palestijnse Maan nieuws opwerpen, is de eis dat een vredesverdrag ook de Gazastrook moet omvatten. Dat lijkt onmogelijk zolang Hamas daar aan de macht is, dat ieder akkoord natuurlijk zal verhinderen. Voor Hamas is ieder compromis onbespreekbaar en zij is hooguit bereid tot een langdurig staakt het vuren in ruil voor de Israelische terugtrekking uit de Westoever en Oost Jeruzalem en het recht onbeperkt wapens de Gazastrook in te mogen smokkelen. Soms eist men ook nog de terugkeer van alle vluchtelingen en de vrijlating van alle gevangenen. Hoe de PLO en PA denken dit probleem op te lossen wordt niet duidelijk. Of zou men in feite niet veel van de positie van Hamas verschillen?

 

RP

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( article summarized)

 

PLO envoy: No peace deal without Gaza
Published today (updated) 05/09/2010 14:45
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=312175

 

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian negotiators will not sign a peace deal with Israel unless it includes the Gaza Strip, the PLO envoy to the United States reiterated ahead of the first round of negotiations in Washington.

 

Ambassador Maen Areikat was playing down concerns at home that Gaza, ruled by the PLO's rival Hamas movement since 2007, was being overlooked in the talks that began 2 September in the US capital.

 

While recent attention has centered on claims to Jerusalem and a 2-day flare-up of violence in the occupied West Bank, "Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state," Areikat insists.

 

"When we talk about a solution or resolution to the conflict, of course we are including Gaza and including the people of Gaza," Areikat says citing certain US "assurances" that the talks will lead to a future state that will be contiguous.

 

[...]

 

Even officials who support the talks have avoided addressing how an agreement would be implemented in Gaza. Local elections scheduled for July, for example, were cancelled at the last minute apparently due to concerns that Fatah could lose. This was despite that Hamas never agreed to participate, saying a long-stalled inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement would have to come first.

 

Still, Areikat says Palestinians in Gaza will agree to join the hypothetical future state if the negotiations conclude successfully.

 

"If we can manage to reach an agreement that can end the occupation, lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, deal with all the core issues, a just and agreed-upon resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem, of course, why not? Why wouldn't the Palestinian people support such an agreement?" he says. "Nobody neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank will object to such an agreement."

 

The PLO's chief negotiator on Sunday also said Gaza could be brought into the fold. Speaking with Israel's Army Radio, Erekat explained that if the two sides "sign an endgame agreement on all core issues I believe we will bring Gaza back."