http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099035.html
Last update - 18:33 09/07/2009
Egypt official charged with Shalit case visits Ramallah
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
Tags: Israel news, Gilad Shalit
An Egyptian official charged with mediating between Israel and the
Palestinians for the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad
Shalit visited Ramallah on Thursday for talks with Palestinian Authority
leaders.
General Mohammed Ibrahim serves as deputy to Egyptian intelligence chief
Omar Suleiman, and has been working alongside him on attempts to bring rival
Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah into reconciliatory talks.
Also Thursday, Amos Gilad, the head of the political-security bureau at
the Defense Ministry, met with Egyptian security officials in Cairo for
discussions on the situation in the Gaza Strip and on the Palestinian unity
talks.
Israeli defense sources said on Wednesday that a freeze in the attempted
reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas has also brought efforts to negotiate
Shalit's to a standstill. Shalit has been in Palestinian captivity since he was
abducted in a 2006 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.
The sources say the likelihood of a speedy deal to release Shalit is
slim.
Recent optimistic statements made by Egyptian mediators and American and
European officials were based on Cairo's efforts to reconcile the two rival
Palestinian factions.
Egypt stated officially last month that it was planning to bring the
parties to sign a reconciliation agreement on July 7. But the Hamas-Fatah talks
stagnated more than a week ago and their scheduled resumption on July 25 is
doubtful, following the objection of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud
Abbas. Other PA leaders want to delay talks until August.
Egypt's hope of bringing about Shalit's release was also based on its
expectations of brokering an internal Palestinian reconciliation. The Egyptians
hoped that such an agreement and its achievements would have generated a
positive atmosphere that would have encouraged Hamas to be flexible about
Shalit.
The Egyptian-brokered talks between Israel and Hamas are to be resumed
soon with the participation of Hagai Hadas, the prime minister's newly
appointed negotiator for Shalit's release, Egyptian sources reported earlier
this week.
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