Hamas, Islamic Jihad to brief Egypt on truce deal

CAIRO (AFP) Jun 28, 2003
Officials from the radical Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were due to brief Egyptian officials Saturday on progress toward agreeing a temporary halt to anti-Israeli attacks, a Palestinian source said here.

Hamas officials Osama Hamadan and Imad al-Alami arrived in Cairo Friday night and had already had a first meeting with Egyptian officials, the source said, adding that an Islamic Jihad delegation was due to join the talks Saturday.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement have "agreed on" a truce document which will be released within the next few days, a senior official of the radical Hamas movement said Friday.

"There is a shared document, which reflects a shared position, and was agreed on by Hamas, Jihad and Fatah. It will be announced very soon, within a few days," Abdelaziz al-Rantissi told AFP, adding that Hamas "prepared the document."

Rantissi said the three factions now needed to inform Arafat's "Palestinian Authority, our brothers in Egypt and other concerned parties".

Egypt has been working hard in recent months to convince armed Palestinian groups to end their attacks against Israel, in exchange for Israel doing the same with regard to Palestinians.

Cairo sent two delegations of security officials to the Palestinian territories earlier this month to mediate a truce.

WAR.WIRE