President Hosni Mubarak met yesterday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "Abu Mazen" at the presidential palace in Heliopolis. The meeting was attended by Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abul Gheit, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat, the secretary of the PLO executive committee Yasser Abd Rabbo and Palestinian Ambassador in Cairo Nabil Amr. The Rafah crossing was partially opened yesterday to allow scores of Palestinian pilgrims to return to Gaza. Following the talks, the Palestinian President said it was necessary to hold a meeting with President Mubarak to discuss many developments on the Palestinian cause, such as Hamas refusing to attend the Palestinian dialogue in Cairo on November 9 and preventing Palestinian pilgrims from traveling to perform the pilgrimage. In addition, this meeting was necessary to discuss the reasons behind breaking the truce, and to review means and ways of restoring dialogue.
“Egypt is the most qualified body in the world to sponsor the Palestinian dialogue and calm the situation in Gaza between Hamas and Israel,” Abbas said, stressing the importance of providing Gaza people with aid. 90% of aid to Gaza comes across Egypt, but unfortunately the crossings are sometimes attacked as was the case a few days ago in Karm Abu Salem border crossing that was attacked during the passage of several vehicles carrying humanitarian supplies and aid to Gaza. With regard to the Israeli attempts to export the problem of Gaza to Egypt and claims that it had implemented Resolution 242 on withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian President said this situation is good for Israel, which is helped by other parties. “To put it in a nutshell, Israel tries to evade responsibility towards Gaza and burden Egypt with it. This is unacceptable and we will by all means prevent such acts.” He said. “We cannot accept or agree on invading Gaza or attacking it with helicopters or artillery or rockets. We categorically reject such acts because this does harm to the Palestinian people and their interests. However, we are against missiles launched from time to time on Israel, he added.
