Egypt is still trying to broker reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and promote negotiations between Abbas and Netanyahu, Dina Ezzat reports Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are expected in Cairo next week. The two men, sources suggest, will "not necessarily" arrive on the same day. However, the talks that each would conduct in Cairo with President Hosni Mubarak will address the potential for them to meet and re-launch negotiations, with an eye on a final settlement -- later rather than sooner. Netanyahu, the Israeli press says, is coming to town to lobby Cairo's support for his argument that negotiations could be resumed without Israel having to meet the Arab request -- the Palestinians call it a condition -- of a total freeze on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. A tough deal to get, it seems. This week, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told reporters repeatedly that Israel "has to halt its settlement construction for the duration of the negotiations" with the Palestinians. Netanyahu, also according to the Israeli press, will study what Arabs might offer in terms of normalisation if he were to make a significant suspension of settlement building in the West Bank and away from East Jerusalem. "If the Israeli government stops its settlement construction and enters into serious negotiations with the Palestinians then Arab countries could move towards normalisation," Abul-Gheit said Monday. Netanyahu, according to press statements made by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Mauratinos in Cairo this week, seems likely to agree with the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on "a moratorium" of settlements. Egyptian diplomats say that if Mitchell successfully delivers on the settlement suspension then Cairo would be willing to actively participate in facilitating Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. And according to the same diplomats, Cairo is encouraging Abbas to agree to a three- way meeting that US President Barack Obama is wishing to host for both Abbas and Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next week in New York. Earlier this week in Cairo, the Palestinian president had indicated, following a meeting with Mubarak, that he needs assurances from the US that the proposed three-way meeting will be more than a mere photo opportunity for the press. "We ask what is this meeting supposed to be about and what can it produce?" Abbas said while expressing scepticism over the chances of making peace with the Netanyahu government which is aggressively pursuing settlement construction. This week, both Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the construction of a new settlement. Barak on Tuesday called President Mubarak to explain the Israeli point of view on this particular settlement expansion. In Cairo next week, Netanyahu and Abbas will also want to hear from their senior Egyptian interlocutors, which along with the president would include General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, about what Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal had to say in Cairo this week during a visit that predominantly covered two issues of interest to both men: a prisoner swap that could lead to the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and a Palestinian reconciliation deal. In a press conference he held in Cairo on Sunday Mashaal did not make promises on either issue. On the release of Shalit, Mashaal told reporters that German and Egyptian mediations are now being combined but that "we are still in the early beginnings. Much work must still be done and it is unwise to push optimism," he said. On reconciliation, Mashaal said Hamas was committed to reconciliation but not at any price. Mashaal and Abbas both said this week that Cairo was planning to present them with a final paper for reconciliation in the next few days. Both men will need to reply to the Egyptian paper within days so that Cairo could book a "final date" for a reconciliation meeting. Egyptian sources tell Al-Ahram Weekly that the reconciliation proposition is accommodating the views and concerns of both sides and that it calls for gradual implementation, under Egyptian supervision, of reconciliation requirements including the establishment of a new government and the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the security apparatus in Gaza, under the control of Hamas, and the West Bank, under Fatah supervision. The mutual release of Hamas and Fatah prisoners is something Cairo is expecting both sides to immediately honour so that a reconciliation deal could be brokered. Egypt is getting promises from both sides but, as one source said, "judging by the history of repeated failures and broken promises by both sides, no deal is considered done until it is signed." Egypt is hoping to get the deal signed by the third week of October.
