NEWS ANALYSIS: Four-way summit serves as a show of support for Abbas (dpa)

Middle East News

By Pakinam Amer
Jun 25, 2007, 20:39 GMT

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - A four-way summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh ended without a breakthrough, and according to independent observers, none was intended.

In their eyes, the summit was merely 'an exercise in public relations' aiming at hailing support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his new emergency government.

Egypt's President Hosny Mubarak called for the summit in the wake of the recent dramatic developments in Gaza, where in five days of savage fighting Hamas gunmen routed their opposite numbers from Abbas' Fatah party.

The summit had been officially aimed at discussing ways of accelerating the peace process in addition to 'giving hope to the Palestinian people in forming an independent Palestinian state,' as summit organizers put it.

But the Israeli leadership did not make any strong commitments to a set of steps that were seen as essential for Israel to boost Abbas and his new cabinet: security cooperation, release of full Palestinian tax revenue funds, ease of transportation of humanitarian aid and the lifting of military checkpoints around the West Bank.

The summit clearly focused on bringing Abbas and Olmert together, in the presence of Arab states. And as much as the Egyptians wanted to seem impartial in the struggle between Hamas and Fatah, their efforts were futile.

It is true that the Egyptian leadership were not quick to denounce Hamas or even use the term 'terrorist' that Israel and other Western states use to describe the militant Islamic group, which has recently taken over the Gaza Strip.

But in a press conference at the end of Monday's summit, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad refused to address the question of 'Hamas legitimacy' when cornered by a reporter.

Instead, he said that the summit did not aim at discussing the rift between Hamas and Fatah, 'but is meant to lift the suffering of the Palestinians and put the peace process back on track.'

It was arguably a witty way to avoid commenting on Hamas, but it still does not negate the fact that Egypt's leadership had apparently given a sigh of relief when the Hamas-led government was dissolved and a moderate one was installed in place.

After this decision was made, Egypt was the first to express support by backing Abbas and shifting its diplomatic delegation from Gaza, the hotbed of Hamas, to Ramallah in the West Bank, which is controlled by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Insider sources from both Hamas and the Egyptian government had told Egyptian newspapers that bilateral talks between Egypt's intelligence head Omar Suleiman and Hamas leaders are ongoing in order for a solution to be reached.

But the shadow of an Islamic state right on the borders with Egypt is too worrying, observers say.

'The fear of Hamas is the fear of the Islamic project, the fear of an Islamic state that could lie a few kilometres away from Egypt,' says Essam el-Erian, leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood - the spiritual guide to many Islamic groups around the region, mainly in Egypt and Jordan, and the womb from which Hamas was born.

Egypt has been engaged in its own power struggle with the Brotherhood - a group that gains its legitimacy from its Islamic conservative identity and entrenches itself among Egypt's grassroots through providing services to the people.

Hamas' sweeping majority victory in last year's Palestinian elections both stunned and intimidated regional and international states. In a weaker echo, but still worrying to Egypt's leaders, the Muslim Brotherhood made great strides in recent elections, taking 88 seats in Parliament and forming the strongest opposition force there.

And although the Egyptian government had always considered Hamas a resistance group and a member of the Palestinian political circle, the fear that the group could serve as an inspiration to Islamists in neighbouring countries has always been stalking them, according to several analysts and Egyptian columnists.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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