By Xinhua,
Ramallah : Egypt’s efforts to broker ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are supported by all parties concerned, Palestinian Information Minister Riyadh al-Maliki said on Tuesday.
The support, by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel and the U.S. administration, “gives Egypt a green light to keep on its efforts to insure the calmness,” al-Maliki told Voice of Palestine radio.
Recently, Egypt has enhanced its diplomatic efforts to reach the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Egypt’s al-Ahramweekly Tuesday reported Cairo had already succeeded in brokering the lull deal, but a Hamas spokesman said the reports were “inaccurate” since his group is still awaiting an answer from Israel.
Lifting the Israeli closure on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip was part of the package deal, al-Maliki said.
According to al-Maliki, Rafah crossing point between Gaza and Egypt delays the announcement of the agreement.
Hamas wants to play a role on the crossing which Egypt, the Palestinian National Authority, Israel and the United States want to run under a U.S.-brokered protocol that gives pro-Abbas security power on the passageway, but Abbas’ forces are no longer operational in Gaza Strip since June 2007 when Hamas took over the territory by force, he added.
“It seems that Hamas wants to get kind of recognition to its role there by deploying its forces a few meters away from the Presidential Guards,” al-Maliki says.
He expressed fears that, by deploying Hamas forces on Rafah crossing, “the Palestinian people will be filtered according to their affiliation, how close or far from Hamas.”