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World Jewish News
Hamas military chief 'in Cairo running Shalit talks'
16.03.2009
The head of Hamas' military wing, Ahmed Jabri, is heading indirect negotiations in Cairo with Israel over the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported Monday.
The London-based paper said Jabri, who has never left the Palestinian territories before, arrived in Cairo four days ago to assume the role in the talks.
Jabri has been responsible for Shalit's wellbeing in Gaza as well as safeguarding the secrecy of his hiding place. According to the report, which is based on Palestinian sources described as "credible," senior Hamas officials Mahmoud Zahar and Nizar Awadallah are also involved in the talks.
The newspaper also reported that Israel is willing to release 300 Palestinian prisoners out of 450 on a list presented by Hamas, but maintains its opposition to the remaining 150, some of whom have been convicted of involvement in terrorist attacks.
The negotiations were to continue Monday after talks that were supposed to end Sunday night were extended for another 24 hours.
Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin and Ofer Dekel, who is Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's chief negotiator on the Shalit deal, were supposed to return from Cairo at around 8 P.M. Sunday night and report to Olmert on their indirect talks with Hamas in the Egyptian capital. However, they extended their stay for 24 hours to continue the negotiations. Olmert's office issued a statement saying he wants to exhaust every possibility of reaching a deal.
The cabinet was to have convened Monday morning to discuss the details of the deal, the first such meeting called since Shalit was taken captive in June 2006. However, that meeting has now been postponed to Tuesday.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, meanwhile, said on Monday that there were Palestinians jailed in Israel who were not up for release as part of a deal for Shalit.
He told Israel Radio that Israel had "additional ways" of pressuring Hamas, adding that if the negotiations involving prisoners currently held in Israel failed, they would be renewed over prisoners to be held in Israel in the future.
Abu Mujahad, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, told Haaretz Sunday that something is happening in the negotiations over Shalit, but since Israel has in the past reneged at the last minute on deals that were almost completed, neither his organization nor Hamas was willing to make any statements on the matter. The Resistance Committees are one of the three groups that originally kidnapped Shalit. Abu Mujahad was in Cairo for Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks with the other Palestinian factions.
If the Cairo talks lead to a breakthrough, the ministers are expected to vote on Tuesday on the outlines of a prisoner swap. If a deal is presented by Olmert and supported by Dekel and Diskin, it is likely to be approved by a large majority of the cabinet.
Gilad Shalit's brother, Yoel, said Sunday that, "These are fateful hours for Gilad. The decision is whether he will live or be left to his fate. From our point of view, there is no other opportunity."
Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, who visited the tent where the family is holding a vigil near the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem, said he would support a prisoner swap if it came to a cabinet vote. "I have voiced my opinion in the past as well that everything must be done to bring Gilad home," he said. "That is the moral obligation of the State of Israel and of the present government."
Shalit was kidnapped raid by Gaza militants in a 2006 cross-border. He is widely believed to be still held in the Hamas-ruled coastal strip.
By Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service
Источник: Haaretz
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