Israel-Palestine: Is Egypt Bringing Abbas to Peace Talks?

On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said, after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “I can’t talk about details, but the prime minister was discussing positions that surpass in our estimate what we’ve heard from them in a long time. I can’t say that he has come with changed positions, but he is moving forward.”

Are we getting glimpses of an emerging picture, one which will be completed when Egypt brings Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiating table?

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On Thursday, Netanyahu called for a meeting with Abbas later in January at the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. "There is a possibility of a breakthrough surrounding the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority which was proposed during Netanyahu's talks with Mubarak," senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office said.

However, the Palestinian Authority on Friday said it has not received an official request. Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeina, told Ma'an news agency, "We didn't receive anything about such a thing. So far what we heard was from the media. All that we know is that the president [Abbas] will be going on Wednesday to meet [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak."

Rdeinia said that that a Netanyahu-Abbas meeting would not constitute a formal resumption of final-status talks, and he added, "Negotiations do not need conditions [but] requirements under the road map."

So, despite Cairo's words, all remains confused and even contradictory. Israeli politician Yossi Beilin recently said that Netanyahu will give a new "concession" and announce a withdrawal plan with some adjustments to the 1967 borders. However, Ha'aretz has reported that despite the supposed construction freeze, dozens of settlements in the West Bank are expanding in addition to the approved 700 new apartments in East Jerusalem.

Let's see what Egypt is going to propose to Abbas.