Hamas/ Israel truce: Difficult negotiations

Israel will not enter into any agreement on truce with Hamas in the Ghaza strip without the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit said on Saturday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a statement.

•     "The position of the Prime Minister is that Israel will fail to arrangements on the issue of truce before the release of Gilad Shalit," said the press release.
  
      "The priorities are the security of the inhabitants of the south and the release of Shalit. Israel will invest all its efforts to achieve these two objectives," added the text, stressing that any "decision will be taken, taking into account the new circumstances created by the election."
  
      The Israeli right, holding a hard line facing the Islamist movement Hamas, is virtually assured of forming the next Israeli government in the wake of parliamentary elections on 10 February.
  
      The Franco-Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted in June 2006 by armed Palestinian groups, including Hamas, in a commando operation conducted at the edge of the Ghaza strip.
  
      Earlier Saturday, Hamas accused Israel of being back on its positions regarding the duration of a possible truce agreement.
  
      Hamas denounces "the back of Israel on the truce. They (the Israelis) have called a truce without time limit and not a year and a half as agreed," said in a statement the Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum.
  
      The recent raids conducted by Israel in Ghaza and its obstinacy are obstacles placed by Israel for the efforts (to move) to a truce," he added, stressing that his Hebrew state bears the "responsibility consequences of this dangerous escalation."
  
      Hamas had announced Thursday to have agreed to a truce of 18 months in the Ghaza strip against the lifting of the blockade imposed by Israel to Palestinian territory. According to him, Egypt would officially announce within 48 hours such an agreement.
  
      But the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, expressed Friday doubts in Doha on Sunday announced here by Egypt for a truce agreement with Israel, declaring to AFP a "complication" in the negotiations.
  
      "The Egyptians have informed us that the announcement of the truce would be made Sunday, but there was a complication and it is unclear whether this date will be respected," he said.
  
      Souleimane Omar, head of Egyptian intelligence services and key man in the negotiations, met several times with the Israeli and Hamas to try to establish a long-term truce on Ghaza.
  
      The Israeli offensive in the Ghaza strip on December 27 has caused 1330 Palestinian Martyrs. His particular target was to put an end to Palestinian rocket attacks against its territory.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.