Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hosted a summit of six top European
leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, in order to coordinate efforts to
strengthen a ceasefire in Gaza and to help rebuild the war-torn
territory. No representatives from Israel or Hamas attended the summit, co-chaired by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Top European and Arab leaders met in the Egyptian
resort town of Sharm el Sheikh, in a bid to act quickly to strengthen
the just-declared ceasefire in Gaza, to help rebuild the battered
territory, and to try to avoid a repeat of the three-week conflict.
Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, who co-sponsored a staged peace plan for Gaza,
began the conference by spelling out what needs to be done.
He
says there are difficult and important issues before us, requiring us
all to redouble our efforts: we must guarantee the respect of the
ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and restore
the truce, reopen border crossings and lift the Israeli blockade.
French
President Nicholas Sarkozy, who co-authored the Gaza peace plan,
thanked Mubarak for his efforts and subtly criticized other Arab states
who recently met in Qatar, calling for an end of the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the ostracizing of Israel.
He
says that Egypt played an essential role in stopping this war, which
has only led to more pain and more disaster and will not guarantee
peace and security for anyone. Egypt unlike other Arab states acted
responsibly to find consensus, rather than throw oil on the fire.
Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, his face looking drawn and tired, explained
sadly that the crisis has been a disaster for his people and that much
remains to be done to overcome it.
He says that a human,
humanitarian, and national catastrophe has befallen us, one we wanted
to avoid from the start. But since it has happened, Abbas says we must
work to strengthen the just-declared ceasefire, resume a truce (with
Israel), bring urgent humanitarian aid to our people, and rebuild
Palestinian unity.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called for
Hamas and Israel to do what needs to be done to strengthen the
still-fragile ceasefire.
"Hamas must stop fighting, must stop
sending rockets into Israel and Israel must also exercise maximum
restraint, so that this ceasefire can be sustained," Mr. ban said.
Jordan's
King Abdallah II urged the European Union and the incoming U.S. Obama
Administration to cooperate and to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian
crisis immediately, so that future crises can be averted.
"Coordination
between the EU and the incoming Obama Administration is going to be
vital for all of us, to think of the day after, to get the process back
on track and to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem
immediately," King Abdallah said. "If we do not do that, it will only
be a matter of time before many world leaders will be meeting again,
calling for a ceasefire in the region."
King Abdallah also
insisted that the 2002 Arab peace initiative be kept alive, tacitly
criticizing Syria and other radical Arab states, who recently declared
it was dead.
Meanwhile, despite recent bellicose rhetoric coming
from the Damascus-based Hamas leadership, the Deputy head of its
political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk declared the group would abide by
the ceasefire, giving Israel one week to withdraw its forces from Gaza.
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