Dina Ezzat explores renewed Egyptian efforts to ensure a "clean" Israeli withdrawal from Gaza Against the backdrop of an intense, and at times violent, Israeli debate over Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to disengage from Gaza, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman announced plans to visit Israel next month to re-launch talks on securing an orderly Israeli withdrawal by the spring of 2005. "General Omar Suleiman and myself are going to Israel on 11 November," Abul-Gheit told reporters last Thursday. The date, said the foreign minister, had been proposed by Israel. The trip, originally planned for early October, was delayed by Egypt for several weeks. No reasons were given for the postponement and it remains unclear why Egypt has now decided to accept the proposed Israeli date for renewed talks "We know that Egypt can do something," said Abul-Gheit. "We can talk sense during this coming round and we believe we have to do it." Abul-Gheit's trip comes as Sharon faces opposition to his unilateral disengagement plan, not least from within his own Likud Party. International concern over the potentially negative impacts of the disengagement, both economic and humanitarian, has been voiced in many quarters, including the UN, along with fears that it will leave the Palestinian population of Gaza isolated, essentially cut off from the rest of the world. The planned visit also comes in the wake of statements made by Dov Weisglass, one of Sharon's closest advisers, suggesting the ultimate aim of the disengagement plan is to lay the roadmap, and the entire peace process, to rest. Cairo is not, insist Foreign Ministry sources, oblivious to the "possible negative consequences of this plan on the interests of the Palestinians, and even of Egypt, should it be conducted in the way some Israeli officials want it to be". Egyptian efforts to "have a role in defining the guidelines for the implementation of the plan" is, the same sources say, intended to prevent any negative consequences. Given the absence of any clear or effective role of the Quartet in supervising the implementation of the roadmap and the seemingly endless Israeli attacks against Palestinians, coupled with "the failure of the Palestinians to put their house in order", Egypt has no alternative but to pursue coordination with Israel in order to minimise potential harm to Palestinian and Egyptian interests. Diplomatic sources say Egyptian-Israeli talks on the unilateral disengagement plan have so far been anything but smooth sailing and there are no expectations for a breakthrough in the immediate future. "There are problems but I am sure we can tackle them," Abul-Gheit said. The agenda of the expected talks will focus on the guarantees Egypt and Israel will need to exchange in relation to the implementation of the plan. Israel still expects Egypt to deliver a compliant Palestinian resistance and to agree on retaliation by Israel in the event of anti- Israeli attacks. Egypt is still waiting for Israel to allow Arafat freedom of movement within the Palestinian territories and to agree on the "upgrading of the Egyptian security presence within the demilitarised zone". So far progress on security arrangements that include Palestinians and Israelis seems easier to achieve than progress on mutual Israeli-Palestinian guarantees. The past few weeks, and particularly in the aftermath of the Taba bombings, have seen intensive discussions on security arrangements. Sources in Egypt say tentative arrangements are already being considered. It is this progress, they say, that has lent impetus to the planned visit, regardless of speculation and statements in the Israeli press concerning the real intentions behind the disengagement plan. "We don't decide policy on what we read in the press or the statements officials make in public. We decide policy on the basis of what we hear in official talks," Abul-Gheit said. Meanwhile the Palestinian Authority, one Cairo-based diplomat said, is far from confident about Israeli intentions towards Gaza following the redeployment given suggestions in the Israeli press that Israel will seek to then abandon its responsibilities as an occupying power. Egypt is hopeful that these obstacles will be overcome with some support from the European Union. In Paris this week for a foreign ministers meeting of seven Euro-Mediterranean states, Abul-Gheit raised the subject of post-disengagement Gaza with his European interlocutors and received promises of European help in encouraging development in Gaza once the disengagement is completed. The problem remains, however, that the EU, like Egypt, wants guarantees from Israel that the disengagement will be part of the roadmap. And there is no one on the horizon who looks remotely willing to make that promise.
