Hillary to Visit Middle East Next Week
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM Hillary Clinton will make her first visit to Israel and the Occupied West Bank as US secretary of state next week, Israeli officials said on Monday.
Also on Monday, Israeli officials said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will replace Amos Gilad, an adviser to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, and lead envoy to Egyptian-brokered truce talks with Hamas after he publicly criticised the government’s negotiating strategy.
Hamas accused Israel of poor faith and urged Egypt to respond to the reshuffle by opening its own border with Gaza.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli army carried out an air raid in the central Gaza Strip after a military patrol came under fire from fighters, witnesses said.
Hillary was scheduled to hold meetings on March 3 and 4 with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, along with other leaders, after she attends a March 2 conference in Egypt on reconstruction in the Gaza Strip following last month’s war, the officials said. US officials had no immediate comment on the visit.
A separate visit to Israel and the Occupied West Bank by George Mitchell, US President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, will begin on Thursday. Mitchell will return there with Hillary after they attend the Gaza conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Israeli officials said.
In addition to Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Hillary was expected to meet right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Israeli President Shimon Peres has asked to form the next government.
Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians were looking to Hillary to keep the pressure on Israel to meet its international commitments.
“The most important thing for us is to see to that any Israeli government that is formed is committed to a two-state solution and to stopping settlement expansion,” Erekat said.
In a statement, Olmert’s office said Gilad’s suspension would not hamper efforts to secure the soldier’s release.
In a critique quoted by an Israeli newspaper last week, Gilad said the government had an inconsistent approach to the talks that risked insulting the Egyptians.
“It was totally unprofessional and unseemly for a civil servant to publicly attack his boss,” an official in Olmert’s office said, announcing that Gilad would be replaced as envoy to the negotiations.
A Barak aide hit back, saying Olmert was hurting Israel’s interests by deciding “not to avail himself of Amos Gilad’s abilities and experience”.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said: “This shows that the Zionist occupation government has no intention of reaching an agreement on the truce or of concluding a prisoner swap.”
Gilad deplored Olmert’s attempt to wed the talks on an expanded Gaza truce to efforts to cobble together a deal in which Gilad Shalit, a soldier abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian fighters to Gaza in 2006, would be freed.
Meanwhile, there were no reports of casualties from the raid on the Maghazi refugee camp.
Also on Monday, Israeli officials said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will replace Amos Gilad, an adviser to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, and lead envoy to Egyptian-brokered truce talks with Hamas after he publicly criticised the government’s negotiating strategy.
Hamas accused Israel of poor faith and urged Egypt to respond to the reshuffle by opening its own border with Gaza.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli army carried out an air raid in the central Gaza Strip after a military patrol came under fire from fighters, witnesses said.
Hillary was scheduled to hold meetings on March 3 and 4 with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, along with other leaders, after she attends a March 2 conference in Egypt on reconstruction in the Gaza Strip following last month’s war, the officials said. US officials had no immediate comment on the visit.
A separate visit to Israel and the Occupied West Bank by George Mitchell, US President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, will begin on Thursday. Mitchell will return there with Hillary after they attend the Gaza conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Israeli officials said.
In addition to Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Hillary was expected to meet right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Israeli President Shimon Peres has asked to form the next government.
Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians were looking to Hillary to keep the pressure on Israel to meet its international commitments.
“The most important thing for us is to see to that any Israeli government that is formed is committed to a two-state solution and to stopping settlement expansion,” Erekat said.
In a statement, Olmert’s office said Gilad’s suspension would not hamper efforts to secure the soldier’s release.
In a critique quoted by an Israeli newspaper last week, Gilad said the government had an inconsistent approach to the talks that risked insulting the Egyptians.
“It was totally unprofessional and unseemly for a civil servant to publicly attack his boss,” an official in Olmert’s office said, announcing that Gilad would be replaced as envoy to the negotiations.
A Barak aide hit back, saying Olmert was hurting Israel’s interests by deciding “not to avail himself of Amos Gilad’s abilities and experience”.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said: “This shows that the Zionist occupation government has no intention of reaching an agreement on the truce or of concluding a prisoner swap.”
Gilad deplored Olmert’s attempt to wed the talks on an expanded Gaza truce to efforts to cobble together a deal in which Gilad Shalit, a soldier abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian fighters to Gaza in 2006, would be freed.
Meanwhile, there were no reports of casualties from the raid on the Maghazi refugee camp.
source: www.omantribune.com
