By Xinhua
Ramallah : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will propose a comprehensive cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and West Bank when he meets Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Monday.
“The President will try to shed light on the dangerous military escalation in the Gaza Strip and strive for a mutual and full calmness in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Erekat, Abbas’ long-time confident, told Voice of Palestine radio.
The Israeli army has been carrying out military operations in the Palestinian territories, especially the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Recently, Israel had threatened repeatedly to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip were Gaza armed groups continue to fire makeshift rockets into southern Israel communities.
According to Erekat, Tuesday’s summit will be part of a series of almost biweekly meetings between the two leaders.
During the meeting, Abbas will ask Olmert to ease the siege on Gaza and speed up the process of delivering humanitarian stuffs to the coastal enclave, said Erekat, adding that the two leaders will also discuss the U.S.-backed roadmap peace plan.
“We hope that talks on the final status issues will start tomorrow,” Erekat said.
So-called final-status issues are the thorniest disputes between Israel and the Palestinians, which included control of Jerusalem, Palestinian borders, Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian refugees, security and water resources.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) launched peace talks last December following a U.S.-host peace conference in the U.S. city Annapolis. But the previous three rounds of talks had achieved nothing significant so far.
At the Annapolis conference, both the Palestinian and Israeli sides had vowed to implement the U.S.-brokered roadmap plan.
The first phase of the roadmap plan calls on the Palestinians to crack down on militants, while demanding that Israel halt Jewish settlement activity and uproot illegal outposts.