Terror group threatens Mideast peace process

A Palestinian terror group linked to Yasser Arafat tonight threatened to scupper Mideast peace negotiations that Israeli and Palestinian leaders believed were making progress

The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers were both optimistic about next week’s three way summit with US President George Bush following a second round of talks on the peace road map.

Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon told his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas he was prepared to negotiate a Palestinian state, and withdraw troops from the West Bank and Gaza, if Abbas first reined in the terror groups.

Abbas said he was confident of arranging a truce with the two groups responsible for most of the suicide attacks against Israelis – Hamas and Islamic Jihad – early next week.

But tonight, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, responsible for many suicide bombings, announced that it rejects any ceasefire reached between the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian militant groups aimed at ending attacks against Israel.

The group, founded after the Intifada broke out in the Palestinian territories against Israel, belongs to the Fatah movement chaired by Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat.

The talks at Sharon’s offices in Jerusalem set the stage for the crucial meeting with Bush in the Jordanian port of Aqaba on Wednesday.

Sharon’s office said the discussions were held in a “positive and very good atmosphere”.

Abbas described the talks as “serious, candid and beneficial”.

“It was a positive meeting and with good results,” Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said.

On Wednesday, Bush will try to push both prime ministers down the US-backed road map to peace, a three stage plan that aims to end 32 months of violence and establish a Palestinian state by 2005.

The Palestinians are demanding Israel make a clear statement endorsing their right to a state at the meeting in Jordan.

The Israelis have insisted that all steps on the road map must first follow an end to terror attacks. It was not clear whether the truce provisionally offered by Hamas and Islamic Jihad would satisfy Israeli demands that Abbas disarm and jail the militants.

But Sharon kept the momentum towards Wednesday’s summit going by saying he would cancel a two week closure of the West Bank and Gaza, allow 25,000 Palestinians to return to their jobs, and would release about 100 Palestinian prisoners. More than 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli custody.

He did not give a time frame for the steps, but his aide Raanan Gissin said: “We will do it in a very short period.”

Israel also repeated its offer to pull troops back from West Bank Palestinian towns and cities reoccupied in a series of incursions over the past year and redeploy troops in Gaza to give Palestinians a chance to enforce security – an Israeli term for preventing terror attacks.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Sofer said: “We got the impression that the Palestinians were serious about fighting the terror.”

A Hamas spokesman today welcomed the Israeli pledge to release prisoners and said his group would make a decision on a possible ceasefire next week.

“It is a good step if it will be continued by the release of all Palestinian prisoners,” Ismail Abu Shanab said.

:: A poll published today showed 57% of Israelis were in support of Palestinian statehood. The poll in the Maariv newspaper also showed 62% in favour of ending Israel’s occupation of parts of the West Bank and Gaza.