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Israelis, Palestinians OK Gaza deal
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-16 15:27
Israel and the Palestinians, under strong U.S. pressure, reached an agreement Tuesday to open Gaza's borders starting Nov. 25, a step vital to turning the economically crippled territory into a success in the wake of Israel's withdrawal.
The deal, struck during a marathon negotiating session run by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, gives Palestinians control over a border for the first time, allowing them to travel freely into Egypt and to export their goods. Israel will be able to see who comes and goes, with the help of European monitors, but Palestinians will retain final authority.
"This agreement is intended to give Palestinian people the freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives," Rice said.
The deal provides a much-needed boost to Gaza's economy and strengthens Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ahead of Jan. 25 parliament elections. Gaza is seen as a test for how the Palestinians would handle an independent state.
Violence could still derail the deal, as it has countless other agreements between the two sides. But officials were upbeat, with Rice lauding it as a "big step forward" in Israeli-Palestinian relations badly damaged by five years of bloody fighting.
Negotiators immediately began preparing for the gritty work of sorting out the details of the border agreement, which will also release tens of millions of dollars in international aid for rebuilding Gaza.
U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, center, EU 's Foreign policy chief Javier Solana, left, and international Mideast envoy James Wolfensohn during a press conference at the David Citadel hotel in Jerusalem Tuesday Nov. 15, 2005.[AP] |
The deal marked the most intensive U.S. involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in years, and there were hopes that its success would encourage Rice to become more personally involved in the future.
Israel and the Palestinians were deadlocked after five months of talks when Rice decided Monday to postpone her trip to Asia to personally mediate in her Jerusalem hotel suite.
Getting only two hours sleep, Rice huddled alternately with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators; at one point a laptop was passed around, with each side typing proposed changes. The agreement was finally reached at 10:05 a.m. Tuesday.
"What the Bush administration should learn from this ... is that in order to move the Israelis and Palestinians into an agreement on something, you need the big guns from the administration, the ones who can speak for the president, to twist arms," said Israeli political analyst Yossi Alpher. "I would hope that Rice would get an appetite for this and want to come back."
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