Egyptian president rejects Israel's attempt to pass responsibility of Gaza Strip to Egypt

Abu Mazen sets conditions for talks with Hamas

Holy Mosque Imam condemns Gaza blockade

Arab group expresses regret over UNSC failure to stop Israeli aggression

President Hosni Mubarak rejected Israel's attempt to hand over responsibility of Gaza Strip to Egypt.

"Egypt will not allow Israel, the occupying force, to attempt to relieve itself from its responsibility over the Gaza Strip and pass it on to Egypt," Mubarak said in an interview to the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica".

Egypt categorically renewed talk about an enlarged Gaza Strip that provides for an exchange of land among Sinai, Israel and Palestinians. "I let go of the Palestinian attack on the Rafah crossing out of consideration to their [the Palestinian people's] sufferings, but I will not accept to have our soldiers pelted with stones or being critically wounded. We also reject attempts to drag Egypt into disputes between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) or to fabricate a crisis with Egyptian security forces at Rafah," Mubarak said.

Mubarak said his contacts with Israel to lift siege on Gaza Strip and resume gas and oil supplies are going on, hoping Rafah crossing would be opened after the return of PA representatives and European Union (EU) monitors in accordance with the 2005 crossing protocol.

Talking about Egypt's nuclear program, Mubarak said "our program to build nuclear power-generating plants is based on purely economic reasons and has nothing to do with the Iranian program or Israeli nuclear capabilities".

About Egypt's nuclear program, Mubarak said Egypt does not have huge oil resources in terms of production or reserves and "our energy needs are on the rise because of the growing economic growth rates and overpopulation problem".

The President unveiled plans to use renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar energy, to cover 20 per cent of Egypt's energy needs.

But solar energy technology, Mubarak said, is too expensive and wind energy can do well in some places like al-Zafarana and fail in other places and so resorting to nuclear technology became a pressing demand.

Mubarak said every country has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"Egypt and the rest of Arab countries seek to possess nuclear energy to secure their energy needs and boost development efforts," Mubarak was answering a query about the declaration by 13 Sunni Arab countries of their desire to possess nuclear energy in one year.

Mubarak stressed that the nuclear program of Egypt and those Arab countries has nothing to do with nuclear armament race.

He renewed his call for freeing the Middle East from nuclear weapons. The whole world is not any safer today than before, he said, calling for addressing the Middle East issues and fostering inter-cultural dialogue. A parallel dialogue between the North and the South on economy, trade, development and poverty combat towards a just international order is mostly needed, he concluded.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday reiterated the Palestinian Authority's (PA) readiness to hold dialogue with Hamas, but only on condition that they retract their military takeover of the Gaza Strip, which the PA views as illegal.

Abbas was speaking the journalists in Cairo after he met with the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak has recently called on Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas to meet in Cairo under Egyptian mediation and resume unconditional dialogue aimed at restoring Palestinian unity.

Hamas accepted the Egyptian proposal for dialogue while the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority demanded that Hamas relinquish control of the Gaza Strip before beginning talks.

"We are ready for dialogue with Hamas in case they recognize the international legitimacy and agree on early elections. Our minds and hearts will then be open to them," Abbas said.

"We are concerned with Palestinian interests, and if Hamas really has the same concerns, they must stick to the agreements which the legitimate Palestinian authority had signed with different international actors," Abbas added.

Abbas conditioned that any resumption of dialogue with Hamas has to be preceded by Hamas regret over taking over Gaza, and should bring the situation back to what it was before mid-June. Hamas refuses Abbas' conditions.

During the talks, Abbas briefed Mubarak the results of his latest meetings with Israeli leaders and discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian issue especially on the Egyptian-Gaza border.

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahhar, who is heading the Hamas delegation to Egypt, told the press that the issue of the siege on the Gaza Strip and the border crossings will be the on top the agenda of a series of meetings in Egypt.

The Hamas delegation includes, in addition to al-Zahhar, former Palestinian Interior Minister Sa'id Siyam and Jamal Abu Hashim.

With regards to the Rafah crossing, Zahhar told the journalists who were at the crossing before he left, "Rafah crossing must be under Egyptian-Palestinian control only, and if we agree to keep it open, there will be no need to keep the border walls open."

The Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip is supposed to join a group of Hamas leaders in exile. It is believed that Khalid Meshaal will head the joint delegation.

Hamas leaders repeatedly called for scrapping the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access, that requires European monitors to be at Rafah in order for the crossing to open, and gives Israel indirect power to open and close the border.

While Hamas wants a role in operate the borders of the Gaza Strip, which it controls, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority also wants to operate the crossings.

On Jan. 23, militants from Hamas' armed wing blew up fence walls at the borders between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, which allowed tens of thousands of Gazans to flock into the Egyptian side to stock up on daily necessities.

The developments at Rafah prompted Egypt to invite Hamas and Abbas for separate talks in Cairo to discuss the reopening of Rafah crossing, Gaza's only gateway to the outside world bypassing Israel.

Mahmoud al-Zahar said his movement will work with Cairo to gradually bring order to the breached border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. We will work towards controlling the border between us and Egypt ... This has to be done gradually," al-Zahar told reporters as he crossed back into Gaza after two days of talks with officials in Cairo.

He added that the border would be under control by Sunday.

We have concluded an agreement between us and our brothers in Egypt to operate channels at the local level at the crossing and along the border and we will implement it tomorrow after we meet with the (Hamas-run) government."

Cairo has not yet commented on the talks, which followed a meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were violently driven from Gaza by Hamas seven months ago.

An official in Abbas's Palestinian Authority denied that Egypt had made an agreement with Hamas, insisting that Egypt had agreed that "it is the Authority that has to take control of the border".

"We gave our side of the story to the Egyptians about what happened on the border because there was some behavior that was unacceptable," al-Zahar said, without offering specifics.

"There will not be any armed Palestinians on the border," he said. Al-Zahar said humanitarian aid will continue to flow through the crossing -- the only gateway to Gaza that is not under Israeli control -- adding that trucks carrying food and medicine would be processed on the Egyptian side.

Hamas has demanded that the Rafah crossing be operated through a strictly Palestinian-Egyptian agreement to replace a 2005 arrangement that included European Union observers and Israeli electronic surveillance.

"There will be discussions among international bodies to solve these problems, to normalize the border in the way we have demanded and not according to the whims of the Israelis," he added.

Since the January 23 breakout the border has evolved into a sprawl of chaos and commerce, with thousands of people streaming across in both directions with crates of goods, herds of animals, and plastic jugs of diesel fuel.

Meanwhile, Egypt arrested 12 Hamas militants with weapons and explosives in the Sinai Peninsula near its breached border with the Gaza Strip, security officials said Friday. The sources said the men are believed to have crossed the Gaza Strip border into Egypt a week after gunmen blew holes in the border wall allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to pour into the country to stock up for supplies.

Security forces are hurrying to fill the breaches in the border wall using high-tech equipment arriving from Cairo.

The arrests of the 12 in the Sinai were made separately, a security official said late Thursday, but all near the Rafah crossing with Gaza that was torn down by Hamas militants and near the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel which leads to the sea resorts of southern Sinai.

Two militants of the Palestinian Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad were among those arrested, he said. All the suspects arrived in Egypt via Rafah, apart from two who had traveled from Gulf states.

Hamas supreme leader, Khaled Meshaal, concluded a new round of talks in Cairo with intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's point man for Palestinian affairs.

Hamas officials said they were asking that the makeshift crossings remain open until new procedures have been agreed to allow the reopening of Rafah's recognized border terminal, which has remained largely shut since June 2006.

"There was progress towards an understanding concerning the Rafah terminal, but we haven't reached agreement and we need to pursue further talks with the Egyptian leaders," leading Hamas official Mohamed Nasr said.

Hamas insists that they cannot accept a return to a 2005 agreement reached by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas when he still controlled the Gaza Strip. Under it, the terminal was to be supervised by European Union monitors with cameras allowing round-the-clock surveillance by Israel.

"We said the border must be under Egyptian-Palestinian control with no Israeli interference... and with no European partners," said senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar, who took part in the talks.

But he added that Hamas was prepared to accept the deployment at the terminal of representatives of the Palestinian president, whose security forces were ousted from Gaza in June last year.

"Hamas has apologized to Egyptian officials for accidents that took place at Rafah border crossing which led to the opening of Gaza border with Egypt," he added.

Abbas insists that control of the Palestinian territories' international borders is his prerogative.

For its part, Hamas denied reports alleging that Egyptian security agencies arrested two groups affiliated to Hamas planning attacks against foreign tourists in Sinai.

This report is groundless and bare of truth, Ahmad Youssef, advisor of the ousted Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Hanniyah, said.

The London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat had said that two Hamas groups were arrested by Egyptian security agencies for planning attacks against tourists in Sinai.

The Hamas official said that these reports only aim at undermining sympathy of the Arab peoples, especially in Egypt, with the Palestinian people.

Ahmad Youssef said Hamas's struggle against Israel is taking place on the Palestinian lands.

He denounced what he said incitement against Hamas, adding that Hamas was counting on the support of the Arab and Islamic peoples to the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the Imam of the Holy Mosque Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudessi called to condemn the Gaza blockade, urging to take all necessary measures as soon as possible to open crossings and set up peace in the region.

This came during the Friday sermon at the Holy mosque in Makkah. He also called for more cooperation among Muslims to end this trouble.

The Arab regretted the U.N. Security Council's failure to adopt a statement on conditions in the Gaza Strip.

The Arab announcement came three hours after the talks held by the Arab group which ended on early Friday.

The group issued a statement, read by Saudi Ambassador to the United Nation Abdul Latief Sallam.

They expressed deep regret over the U.N. Security Council's failure to take any action to stop the deteriorating situation and the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip to end the Palestinian civilians' suffering. The group asserted that the UNSC failure will not deter it from keep exerting efforts within the U.N. organizations to end Palestinians' sufferings.

In its annual report, the Human Rights Watch condemned the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, considering it as a collective punishment of the 5.1-million Palestinians who live in the Strip.

"In the aftermath of the Hamas armed takeover in June 2007, described below, Israel moved to isolate Gaza. It closed the crossings for people (Rafah and Erez) and for goods (Karni), and sharply limited the passage of imports to Gaza at the secondary crossings of Kerem Shalom and Sufa. The Israeli Customs Authority banned the export of Israeli goods bound for Gaza except for limited humanitarian supplies (basic foods, medicine, and medical equipment)," it said.

"The general population has borne the brunt of Israel’s measures. The border closure has led to the shut-down of 75 percent of Gazan factories, further crippling a local economy already weakened by past Israeli border closures. Shortages have led to a steep rise in food prices. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of June 2007 87 percent of Gazans lived below the poverty line and 85 percent were dependent on humanitarian aid," it explained.

"While Israel has usually allowed urgent medical cases to leave Gaza through the Erez crossing, by mid-September it stopped allowing most patients out, reducing the average number of patients leaving Gaza each month to five, down from 40 in the preceding months. Israel denied exit to many seriously ill patients on unspecified security grounds; at least five patients died in Gaza after being denied treatment in Israel."

"At this writing, 670 Palestinian university students were also trapped in Gaza, unable to continue their higher education in the West Bank or abroad. On October 22 some of these university students from Gaza petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to grant them permission to travel. Israel has continued to ban Palestinian students from the West Bank and Gaza from studying at Israeli universities despite a 2006 Supreme Court decision requesting the military to change its policy," the Human Rights Watch added.

"Between January and October 2007, 245 Palestinians, about half of whom were not participating in hostilities, were killed by Israeli security forces. The Israeli army’s continued failure to investigate civilian death and injury where there was evidence of a law of war violation reinforces a culture of impunity in the army and robs victims of an effective remedy," it added.

It also accused Hamas and Fatah of perpetrating deadly crimes. "Palestinian armed groups, rival security forces, and powerful clans continue armed attacks on one another. At this writing, 318 Palestinians, including many civilians, had died in such fighting in 2007, most of them in Gaza," it highlighted.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the government's decision to slash fuel and electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip.

Israeli human rights groups had challenged the sanctions, which Israel says are aimed at halting ongoing rocket fire by Gaza militants.

Palestinian officials say the cutbacks have harmed Gaza's already impoverished residents by causing power shortages and crippling crucial utilities.

The court rejected the petitioners' claim that the Israeli sanctions constitute collective punishment and target civilians in violation of international law.

"We emphasize that the Gaza Strip is controlled by a murderous terror group that operates incessantly to strike the state of Israel and its citizens, and violates every precept of international law with its violent actions," the three-judge panel wrote in its decision.

Israel will continue to supply some fuel and electricity, and the judges said those supplies would "fulfill the vital humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip at this time."

The court said Israel is "required to act against terror organizations in accordance with the norms of international law and abstain from deliberately harming the civilian population located in the Gaza Strip."

The Israeli groups behind the court petition, Gisha and Adalah, condemned the court decision.

"This is a dangerous legal precedent that allows Israel to continue to violate the rights of Gaza residents and deprive them of basic humanitarian needs in violation of international law," the groups said in a statement.