Whether top players like it or not, no progress can be made on the track towards Israeli-Palestinian peace without engaging Hamas, Dina Ezzat reports This was a week for Egypt and the region in general -- and maybe beyond -- to assess whether Hamas may or may not be engaged by a diplomatic drive aimed at setting long-stalled and ineffective Palestinian-Israeli peace talks back on track. "We are making good progress [mediating between Israel and Hamas]," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit this week said in Washington. The foreign minister made his statement in the wake of a series of meetings held with senior US officials over several issues, primarily the fate of Middle East peacemaking in the remaining months of the tenure of US President George W Bush. As he elaborated, addressing months of Egyptian diplomatic/security mediation in an attempt to strike a truce -- or rather "period of quiet" -- between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Abul-Gheit acknowledged that whatever progress he was trying to make was hampered often by "certain trends inside Israel [that] challenge the idea, and certain trends inside Gaza [that also] challenge the idea," and that maybe "there could also be a foreign element." The top Egyptian diplomat publicly promised that Cairo would continue in its efforts to help reach a deal on three main aspects: suspension of Israeli military aggression and Palestinian homemade Qassam rocket firing; a prisoner swap; and the reopening of Gaza's crossing points, especially the Rafah border crossing linking Gaza to Egypt. "I think over time, Hamas will have to change because by not changing they are damaging the prospects for Palestinian peace," Abul-Gheit said without elaborating on what kind of changes the Islamist resistance movement was expected of Cairo to make. During talks that Egyptian officials conducted with a Hamas delegation in Egypt over the weekend, it was demanded by Cairo, yet again, that Hamas suspend all militant activities against Israel to allow for Egyptian mediation to bare fruit. Hamas, informed sources suggest, was also asked to stop making "hostile" statements against Egypt. Neither happened. Militant activities continued, and Hamas leaders and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry was engaged in a fresh round of accusations over a statement whereby Abul-Gheit allegedly denied the prospect of Hamas rejoining a national unity government with Fatah, which is in control of the now Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Egyptian diplomats say that the issue has been blown out of proportion and insist that the "misunderstanding" is unlikely to have any serious impact on "Egypt's committed efforts to finalise a truce between Hamas and Israel". "Our major problem is not the recent alleged statements but rather the insistence of Hamas that the truce, unofficial as it would be, should cover Gaza and the West Bank, and the resistance of Israel, and even of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to accommodate this wish," commented one government source on condition of anonymity. According to this source, the issue for Egypt is not one of "engaging Hamas" as much as it is encouraging Hamas to give Abbas full authority and opportunity to strike the most favourable terms possible in the "framework" for a peace agreement with Israel that President Bush wants to see finalised before the end of this year. A Hamas delegation is expected in Egypt today for talks with top intelligence officials. The talks, sources say, should focus on the truce with Israel. If the Hamas delegation informs Cairo of its approval to launch the truce in Gaza -- before the West Bank -- then Omar Suleiman, top intelligence, would consider a much delayed trip to Israel to finalise the details of the deal. Meanwhile, also this week, former US president Jimmy Carter has been in the region searching for an active role. Carter was on a tour that took him to Israel, Egypt (where he met with Hamas Gaza leaders after being denied access to the Gaza Strip by the Israeli authorities), Syria (where he met with top exiled Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal), Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The former US president declined to reveal the outcome of his talks with Hamas leaders. He underlined, however, the futility of attempts to isolate Hamas -- and for that matter Syria -- from the political goings-on around the peacemaking process. "Some officials in the Israeli government are quite willing to meet with Hamas and maybe that will happen in the near future," Carter said in Cairo Thursday. On Monday, following a meeting with Meshaal in Damascus, Carter said that Hamas is prepared to accept the right of Israel to "live as a neighbour" in peace. He also added that if offered a reasonable peace agreement by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas would likely accept. Carter praised "Arab commitment" to full peace as exemplified in the Arab Peace Initiative. "It is the foundation for hope," he stated. However, he alluded in statements made at the American University in Cairo that any final deal is likely to be inspired by the Geneva Accord -- a peace proposal wherein the legally protected right of return of 1948 Palestinian refugees is relinquished. "It is my dream and hope that someday in my lifetime, and I hope this year, we will have another breakthrough for Middle East peace," Carter said in Cairo over the weekend. On Monday, the former US president suggested that over 80 per cent of a peace agenda between Israel and Syria is actually subject to understandings between Tel Aviv and Damascus. The visit and statements of Carter, especially his expression of sympathy on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and his call to replace "Apartheid in Palestine with peace" that could end the "suffering of [both] Israelis and Palestinians" drew much criticism in Washington. "The problem is not that I met with Hamas and Syria. The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved," Carter responded, while affirming that he was not on a mediation mission. "President Carter's sensible [meetings with the] Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East," Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said in a rare opinion piece printed in The Washington Post 17 April. Cairo-based European diplomats say on condition of anonymity that their capitals admired the Carter visit. They say that Carter's call for engaging Hamas comes at a time of "growing realisation" that there is a need for a new policy towards Hamas that could "force it to abandon militancy". Egypt's role in shaping this new policy would be crucial.
