Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won European, American and Arab backing on Monday for taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt, intensifying his power struggle with the Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday signaled American support for Abbas' forces taking charge of the border.
Rice said a Palestinian Authority presence might help bring "some order" to the Rafah border crossing between the two since hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded across after Hamas militants blew up part of the border last week.
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"There would be many details that would have to be worked out and I can't comment on any specific detail because this is obviously a very complex -- would be a very complex operation in itself," Rice told reporters when asked whether Washington supported Abbas' forces taking charge of the border.
"But we have said that in concept it should be supported and that the parties should look to see if that might be one way to handle the situation," she said at a news conference after meeting Australia's foreign minister.
Egypt said on Monday it wanted Palestinian Authority forces under Abbas to control its border crossing with the Gaza Strip, thus excluding Hamas which has run the coastal territory since its takeover in June.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the European Union and the United States it was important that Israel cooperate with the efforts to control the border crossings "through the deployment of the Palestinian Authority (forces) and ... European Union monitors," a foreign ministry statement said.
"Aboul Gheit stressed in his messages and calls that Egypt was determined to carry out a gradual control of the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip and bring the situation back to the acceptable condition," ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in the statement.
The EU said on Monday it would consider returning monitors to the crossing.
Hamas: Abbas proposal to take border is 'Israeli-led' plot Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri reacted angrily to Cairo's endorsement of Abbas's proposal, calling it an "Israeli-led international conspiracy with the participation of some regional parties."
"We tell all parties that we will not allow the return of old conditions at the crossing," Abu-Zuhri said.
Hamas, which drove Abbas's forces out of the coastal strip in June, said on Sunday it had assurance from Egypt that Cairo was not committed to a 2005 border deal that gave Abbas control over the crossing.
Both Abbas and Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal are expected in Cairo this week to discuss the issue with Egyptian officials.
Arab foreign ministers meeting in an emergency session in Cairo on Sunday welcomed Abbas's proposal to take control of the border.
Hamas, Egypt cooperate in resealing Gaza border
Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces and Hamas militants strung barbed wire across one of the breaches in the border Monday in a sign that a six-day opening of the Gaza-Sinai border may finally be reaching its conclusion.
Three trucks of Egyptian security forces pulled up to the Brazil gate and
strung wire across this entry point into Egypt. They were aided by half a
dozen bearded and uniformed Hamas militants from the other side of the border.
At the main Salah Eddin gate, meanwhile, Palestinian and Egyptian security forces manned the crossing points, stopping civilian cars and letting trucks through, while pedestrians scoured the nearly empty stores for food and consumer products to take back to the Gaza Strip with them in fear of an imminent border reclosing.
"I said no Gazan cars with civilian plates can go through, only cars with truck plates are allowed, do not argue with me, the orders have changed from above," one security guard told a man trying to ferry his Egyptian mother back across the border.
Six days after Hamas blew holes in the border wall with Egypt to effectively end an Israeli blockade and sent hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across the border in a shopping frenzy, authorities in the region were still struggling to come up with a new system to administer the border.
The EU is considering the possibility of sending its monitors back to Gaza's border with Egypt, provided there are assurances they will not be at risk in the Hamas-run territory, EU officials said on Monday. However, any such move seems remote for the time being, the officials said.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that the Gaza crossings will remain closed, except for small amounts of fuel and humanitarian aid.
Egyptian storekeepers, despite the financial windfall of the past few days, expressed worry over the continuing flow of Palestinians into their stores, in light of an apparent government decision to halt the resupply shipments.
"Since I opened this shop more than 20 years ago, I haven't seen such a chaotic situation, if this keeps up, the Egyptians in Rafah will be starving to death," said Mohammed Barahmah, 60, who owns one of the biggest grocery shops in downtown Rafah, near the main crossing point.
"This is terrible, (Egyptian) Rafah will turn into Gaza, there will be nothing to buy and if there was it would be ten times the price."
He said he has ordered five shipments from Cairo, only one of which made it anywhere near Rafah, while the rest stopped at the Suez Canal bridge. Outside Rafah, lines of trucks with Cairo plates could be seen stopped at checkpoints and being sent back to the capital.
Security officials in Cairo, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, denied any shipments to Rafah were being blocked.
On the Gazan side, a dozen blue-camouflaged Hamas security guards armed with assault rifles deployed by the gate and began stopping civilian cars from entering Egypt, allowing through only trucks to carry back more supplies.
The sharing arrangement was brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 - nearly two years before Hamas took over the area and ousted the Palestinian Authority of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We have to commit to the standing international agreement, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters Sunday after meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Cairo.
But Hamas wants a new Rafah security scheme, calling the old one a piece of history.
"This agreement has become part of past history, and the Palestinian people will not accept turning back to the old procedure," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza City.
Hamas says its main objection to the old system is that Israel uses cameras and computers to track everyone who passes in and out of Gaza, even though Israel pulled its citizens out of the strip in summer 2005.
"We don't accept a continued Israeli veto on the movement, the exit and entry through Rafah," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Sunday.
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