Dina Ezzat assesses the final tally at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit "The decision has been taken," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said on Tuesday after the Sharm El- Sheikh summit concluded. "The date of the return of the Egyptian ambassador will be decided within the coming few days." Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Al-Molqi also confirmed the intention of his country to return its ambassador to Tel Aviv. "I will nominate the ambassador within the coming day or two," he said. The widely anticipated twin declarations elicited a cool reaction from the Israelis who, according to sources, insisted on the announcements as an integral part of the overall deal struck in Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday. "Of course, we have normalisation with Egypt and Jordan and without ambassadors there cannot be normalisation," said Raanan Gissin, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman. Gissin's tone suggested that, however pleased Israel was with the decision it remained unwilling to give Egypt or Jordan much credit for their diplomatic gestures. The return of the two ambassadors, recalled in 2000 following Israel's re-invasion of Gaza, signals a thaw in Israel's relations with the two neighbours with which it has peace treaties. "The reduced level of diplomatic representation by both Egypt and Jordan conveyed the anger felt by both countries," commented one Arab diplomat, "and whether the Israelis want to admit it or not the parallel Egyptian/Jordanian declaration is a big gain for Prime Minister Sharon." Israeli diplomats in Sharm El- Sheikh suggest the resumption of high-level diplomatic representation to Tel Aviv by Egypt and Jordan will encourage other Arab countries to pursue economic and perhaps even some form of diplomatic relations with Israel. This was not Sharon's only gain from the Sharm El-Sheikh summit. The fact that President Hosni Mubarak decided to invite the Israeli prime minister at all -- it is Sharon's first visit to Egypt -- can be viewed as a political victory. "It was very embarrassing for Sharon that, unlike other Israeli prime ministers, whether from Labour or Likud, he had not been invited to visit Egypt," said one Egyptian diplomat. "This was something taken against him by his political opponents, including both Netanyahu and Peres." President Mubarak addressed his opening session speech first to the Israeli prime minister and then to the Palestinian president, a fact that would not be lost on Sharon who returned from Sharm El-Sheikh no longer having to worry over accusations by his opponents -- and some times supporters -- that he had wrecked Israel's relationships with both Egypt and Jordan. Jordanian and Israeli diplomats in Sharm El-Sheikh suggested that Sharon would receive an invitation to visit Amman sooner rather than later while Israeli and Egyptian diplomats pointed out that Sharon's invitation to President Mubarak to visit Israel could well be accepted should Palestinian-Israeli rapport be sustained. Many commentators believe Sharon made other diplomatic gains from Sharm El-Sheikh, not least in rehabilitating an image tarnished before international public opinion by evidence of Israeli soldiers operating a shoot to kill policy against Palestinian children and the International Court of Justice advisory opinion against the construction of the separation wall on occupied Palestinian territories. This negative image has now been counterbalanced by Sharon seated around a table with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the heads of states of Egypt and Jordan to talk about peace. Israeli officials and journalists said they were pleased to see the Israeli flag raised over Sharm El-Sheikh airport and conference hall alongside the flags of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians. More important to Sharon, though, is Abbas's commitment that Palestinians will cease attacks against Israelis. The Palestinian commitment came not only in the official Palestinian statement before the summit: Sources say two pages of joint notes included no less than eight lines of specific Palestinian security commitments towards Israel. During closed talks Sharon received assurances from his three Arab interlocutors that they will do everything in their power to convince Palestinian factions, especially Hamas and Jihad, to refrain from attacking Israeli military or civilian targets even in retaliation. The assurances were immediately leaked by Sharon. The lukewarm reaction of the Palestinian factions to the outcome of the Sharm El-Sheikh summit indicates their disappointment at the failure of the Palestinian delegation to secure any progress over the release of Palestinian prisoners -- many of them members of Hamas and Jihad -- held in Israeli prisons. It was a disappointment shared by some Palestinian delegates at Sharm El-Sheikh who were unhappy with Israeli stonewalling over the number of prisoners that will be released "even on long-term basis". Compared to the Israelis the Palestinians made few gains. Senior US officials, including President George W Bush, praised Abbas on the eve of the summit while in Ramallah, a day before the summit was convened, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed Abbas as "Mr President" and not "Mr Chairman", the formula previously used for Yasser Arafat. Washington has also promised financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority and offered help with security training. The European Union, in addition, has promised political and financial support. "We are being much better treated by the international community than at any time in the last four years," commented one Cairo-based Palestinian diplomat. "Our main gain is that we are no longer treated as outcasts by the international community." Nor, according to a senior Palestinian delegate at Sharm El-Sheikh, can the Palestinian leadership be blamed for giving the Israelis more than was promised in return. "For four years the Israelis were attacking us and we called on Arabs, and the rest of the world, for support. We received little," he said, adding that Arab countries were reluctant to offer even financial assistance. That the Palestinian delegation returned from Sharm El-Sheikh without the considerable diplomatic and security gains made by Israel is, many delegates believe, an inevitable reflection of the imbalance of power. For Egypt and Jordan there were also gains. Washington now praises both countries for facilitating peace in the Middle East, praise that is soon expected to translate into economic rewards. As far as Egypt is concerned the hope now is that when President Mubarak arrives in Washington in spring for talks with US President Bush a date will be set for talks aimed at establishing an Egyptian-American free trade area. Egyptian officials have been keen to stress that Cairo did not compromise its political commitments to secure economic gains, arguing that efforts to encourage the resumption of the peace process, even on a security-first basis, stem from the belief that it is the Palestinians who will lose if talks do not begin. "Every day the Israelis are building new settlements. If we keep waiting the Palestinians will have very little land left on which to build a state," said one senior Egyptian diplomat.
