By NNN-KUNA
Gaza : Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri, in press statements Saturday, cast doubts on the true intentions of next week’s tours of the Mideast by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Quartet Envoy Tony Blair, claiming that their intentions were to keep the status of Gaza under siege.
The visit by Solana and Blair to Cairo next week “seeks to render useless demands that Israel break its siege of the Palestinian people, through frustrating attempts by Hamas to keep Rafah crossing open for traffic,” claimed Abu Zahri.
He noted that Hamas sought the reopening of the crossing under new arrangements, bypassing a previous agreement on the conditions of its use signed by the Palestine Authority with Israel and ensuring that no Isareli authorities would be pemitted to monitor traffic at the crossing.
EU Commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner said that Solana and Blair ” will endeavor to arrive at a propitious solution regarding Rafah crossing which links Gaza Strip with Egypt, in the wake of the Quartet’s study of suggestions by Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayydh on allowing the Palestine Authority to monitor the borders between the Strip and Egypt.”
Abu Zahri, while expressing Hamas’s rejection of the Solana-Blair visit, wondered why the EU and the Quartet did not budge on doing what they could regarding other crossings, besides the Rafah one, which Isarel is still adamant about closing.
Announcement of the Solana-Blair visit to Cairo and the region came at the heels of news that Cairo had asked of Hamas not to lay obstacles in the way of attempts to reopen the Rafah crossing under the supervision of the Palestine Authority.
That understanding came about on a visit by some members of the Hamas leadership to Cairo Friday where the question of the siege on Gaza was thoroughly thrashed out.
Though some progress on the issue was made, no firm agreement was reached as to the reopening of the Rafah crossing.