Abbas says Sharon meeting planned
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Abbas on Saturday said the meeting would be on 7 June, but Sharon’s office denied a date had been set, Reuters reported.
The meeting would be their first encounter since Abbas and Sharon pledged to draw a line under more than four years of bloodshed at landmark meeting in Egypt last month.
“We are asking Israel to apply the accords of Sharm el-Sheikh and this demand will be at the centre of my meeting with Sharon on June 7,” Abbas said after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Saturday.
“The situation in Gaza is heading towards calm, which means the return to the state of truce between the Palestinians and Israelis,” Abbas said.
Abbas said he would ask US President George Bush for political support to ensure that each party was committed to what was agreed upon in Sharm el-Sheikh, Aljazeera’s correspondent reported.
Abbas said Hamas would be a full partner in Palestinian decision making after its participation in the municipal elections.
He added that the date for the summit still had to be confirmed in coordination with Israeli officials, without specifying where the meeting would take place.