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Sarkozy tells Peres: IDF Gaza operation does not strengthen Abbas
By Reuters
Tags: gaza, israel news, israel 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told President Shimon Peres on Monday that the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip does not strengthen the hand of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and that all parties ought to agree to a temporary lull in the fighting so as to allow humanitarian supplies to reach the population in Gaza.

Sarkozy, on a peacemaking mission to the Middle East, called on Monday for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip "as soon as possible".


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Addressing a news conference in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Sarkozy said the European Union was working to support efforts to end the bloodshed. He said he would tell Israeli leaders later in the day that the violence must stop. He also condemned Hamas' actions as "irresponsible and unpardonable" for its attacks on Israel.

Sarkozy told three Lebanese newspapers that Hamas bore "a heavy responsibility for the sufferings of the Palestinian people" and that its rocket attacks had to stop.

Sarkozy's comments are to be published Monday, the same day he arrives in Israel as part of the French and European effort to broker a cease-fire to end the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The French president also condemned the Israel Defense Forces ground offensive and urged Israel to let humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

How France, which formally handed over the EU presidency at midnight on Dec. 31, plans to help broker a cease-fire remains unclear, but Sarkozy appears to be counting on his personal influence with both Israel and Arab leaders to help.

With U.S. President George W. Bush counting out the days before he formally departs on Jan. 20, Barack Obama still to take office and a lower-key Czech Republic now holding the EU reins, Sarkozy sees a leadership gap.

"No other leader has really put forward any initiatives," French Budget Minister Eric Woerth told Europe 1 radio on Sunday, a day before Sarkozy's trip.

"I think he is the only one capable of taking an initiative like this," he said.

After handling crises from Georgia to the near-meltdown of the bank system, Sarkozy ended his tenure in the EU presidency with a global profile not enjoyed by any European leader since the early days of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"France, because it has been able to build up relations of confidence and friendship with all the parties, has a particular responsibility," he said in the interview with the Al-Nahar, As-Safir and L'Orient le Jour newspapers.

Israel's ground invasion of the Gaza Strip on Saturday complicates Sarkozy's already sensitive two-day visit, which starts Monday and will take him from Cairo to Beirut, via Ramallah, Jerusalem and Damascus.

The trip will not be made any easier by having to tread carefully around a separate visit at the same time led by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who will formally be speaking for the EU as a whole.

Big pro-Palestinian demonstrations in France, at least one of which ended with violent, if limited, clashes between police and protestors, have also underlined the domestic tensions that could be stoked by the crisis at home.

While French diplomats have been scrupulous in deferring publicly to the Czech EU presidency and Sarkozy made sure to speak with European partners like Germany's Angela Merkel or Spain's Jose Luis Zapatero, he believes the scale of the crisis goes beyond institutional niceties.

"The emergency is compelling us to act," one French diplomat told Reuters.

But conscious that his hyperactive style and refusal to stand by while events unfold has often been criticized as putting show over substance, he has been uncharacteristically quiet about the crisis in recent days.

"The less we talk about it, the better it is," he told a small group of French journalists last week. "It's very complicated."

Hamas to send delegation to Egypt for diplomatic talks

Hamas plans to send a delegation to Egypt on Monday for the first diplomatic talks since the launch of a 10-day-old Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Gaza Strip, an official of the Islamist group said.

Hamas official Ayman Taha said a Hamas delegation would head to Cairo "answering an Egyptian invitation to hold discussions."

A senior Palestinian official said on Friday that Egypt had launched contacts with Hamas to achieve a truce.

The Hamas visit to Egypt would coincide with the expected visit there of French President Sarkozy, who has also launched a European-backed diplomatic push for a cease-fire.

Taha did not say whether the delegation would include Hamas members from Gaza or from elsewhere.

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    • Bookmark to del.icio.us  
     
    'With total determination'
    Widow of IDF soldier killed Monday remembers her fallen hero.
    Echoes of Gaza
    Protests against Gaza op worldwide have had a hateful, violent tone.
      1.   Sarkozy Gets It Right! 01:13  |  Bill Foonman 05/01/09
      2.   Nice one SARK 01:19  |  thinking clearly 05/01/09
      3.   The Three Results of Gaza 03:52  |  Binyamin 05/01/09
      4.   Sakozy 07:02  |  Tina 05/01/09
      5.   presque... 08:16  |  christoph 05/01/09
      6.   Bless you Nicolas 08:18  |  Samuel Prime 05/01/09
      7.   Finally, the French got conscience 08:34  |  Michael 05/01/09
      8.   Follow the example of France? 08:46  |  Natallie Durson 05/01/09
      9.   #3. The result of those three results. 08:46  |  ManintheMiddle 05/01/09
      10.   Historical consciousness is necessary in order to fathom what ... 08:49  |  Jean Van Daem 05/01/09
      11.   # 3 How wrong you are! 09:13  |  Believer 05/01/09
      12.   Burning flags and the propaganda machine 10:16  |  allang 05/01/09
      13.   Stop the occupation and humiliation 10:24  |  sam 05/01/09
      14.   Did Sarcozy ask Hamas why 10:26  |  Dav 05/01/09
      15.   What Sarkozy really knows, and Americans don`t 10:27  |  Israeli citizen 05/01/09
      16.   HAMAS was warned,then warned again.They chose to ignore all that 10:31  |  PETER SM 05/01/09
      17.   Sarkozy, and the entire world blames Hamas 10:33  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 05/01/09
      18.   The answer is 10:36  |  Dav 05/01/09
      19.   (A third try!!!) This conflict will not be over until Hamas... 10:36  |  Jehudah Ben-Israel 05/01/09
      20.   to Dacv: He doesnt need to ask 10:53  |  Refugee 05/01/09
      21.   #13, #14 Hamas unworthy of Palestinians 10:54  |  Beatrice 05/01/09
      22.   Sarkozy: prove that you are not Bush 10:54  |  Palestinian 05/01/09
      23.   Sam 10:54  |  Serge 05/01/09
      24.   #8, Durson, France had been a sovereign for a thousand years 10:56  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 05/01/09
      25.   Go back to sleep Sam I am 11:26  |  robin 05/01/09
      26.   DAV No need to ask Hamas why.Just watch Al Aqsa TV 11:27  |  PETER SM 05/01/09
      27.   Mr Sarkozy could tell us a lot about aggression. 11:33  |  Maureen Ann 05/01/09
      28.   Ms Durson, Before there was France . . . 11:48  |  Zev Davis 05/01/09
      29.   The Politicians 12:09  |  Anne 05/01/09
      30.   to #8 Natallie Durson 12:52  |  El_Justiciero 05/01/09
      31.   HAMAS IS THE WORST NIGHTMARE FOR THE OCCUPIERS 13:00  |  indrajaya 05/01/09
      32.   #27, Maureen Ann, a thousand years of Arab colonial wars 13:03  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 05/01/09
      33.   Sarkozy`s comments. 13:13  |  David Nigel Braham 05/01/09
      34.   Palestinian - You Give Yourself Away 13:40  |  ERSB 05/01/09
      35.   Indrajaya you`re confused or lying 14:03  |  Samuel Smith 05/01/09
      36.   Good for Sarkozy 16:24  |  KUTW 05/01/09
      37.   5. christoph : presque... 16:26  |  KUTW 05/01/09
      38.   8.Natallie Durson: The Nazis are Hamas 16:29  |  KUTW 05/01/09
      39.   13. sam: Israel left Gaza in 2005 16:31  |  KUTW 05/01/09
      40.   ERSB #34 16:58  |  Palestinian 05/01/09
      41.   cipora the heartless one at 39 19:18  |  vin 05/01/09
      42.   ERSB#40 19:30  |  yakov 05/01/09
      43.   #3, Binyamin, how is it disproportionate? 20:26  |  David 05/01/09
      44.   Hey, Nick Sarkozy, what about Palestinians? 20:51  |  Dovy 05/01/09
      45.   Proportionality #41 - Warsaw 1943 20:54  |  American Patriot 05/01/09
      46.   amazing 21:40  |  yossel 05/01/09
      47.   Comments and comments 23:20  |  Fair Deal 05/01/09
      48.   Israeli citizen # 15 01:06  |  Philippe 06/01/09
      49.   cipora 24 get a clue 01:37  |  vin 06/01/09
      50.   Democratic ????? 01:38  |  Johnathan McAuliffe 06/01/09
      51.   Who gives a F-K re Abbas/wake up Sarkozy 01:50  |  Ronnbo 06/01/09
      52.   disproportionate? 01:51  |  D 06/01/09
      53.   # 22 « Palestinian » 07:29  |  Citizen of the world 06/01/09
      54.   TO indrajaya #31 07:33  |  Bob 06/01/09
      55.   Conflict with Hammas 07:55  |  Marc (Mardechi) 06/01/09
      56.   i hope you fair 10:34  |  lalat pengganggu 06/01/09
      57.   Citizen of the world, a correction please 10:38  |  Zev Davis 06/01/09
      58.   Criticising the zionists` politics is anti-semitism Van Daem???? 06:21  |  John and the truth 07/01/09
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    Bradley Burston / Gaza War Diary III: If Mexico shelled Texas, like Hamas shells Israel
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    At least 30 die in strike on Gaza school; IDF: Troops fired in self-defense
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    ANALYSIS / Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip
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    ANALYSIS / Price of stubborness over Gaza exit is dead Israeli soldiers
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