Sharon and Quraya to hold summit

Palestinian and Israeli officials are set to meet on Sunday to prepare for an upcoming summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Premier Ahmad Quraya.  

Quraya wants the meeting to offer hope to both sets of people

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, Quraya’s chief of staff Hasan Abu Libdah and Sharon’s bureau chief Dov Weisglass, will attend the preparatory meeting in Jerusalem.  

The three officials also met last Sunday to prepare for the summit.

Quraya expressed his intention on Thursday to meet Sharon, but emphasised: “We want a meeting that can allow us to come out to both people with a message of hope and this is why I want such a meeting to be well prepared.”

Negotiations

Authors of the Geneva Accord said they believed that Powell sees their efforts as complementing the US-backed “road map”.

The planned meeting comes a week after a European Union summit discussing ways of bringing peace and stability to the region and discussions in Switzerland launching the Geneva accord – an alternative to the US-backed road map.

The architects of the Geneva Accord, Israel’s Yossi Beilin and Palestinian Yasir Abd Rabbu met US Secretary of State Colin Powell late last week to discuss the plan.

Palestinian resistance groups are continuing with their meeting in Cairo to try to agree a workable ceasefire with Israel, under pressure from Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya.

Source: AFP