CAIRO: Restarting the Middle East peace process depends on an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants in June, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said Tuesday.
The peace process depends on several factors, the most important one being resolving the question of an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for the Israeli soldier, he told journalists after meeting US Middle East envoy David Welch. Welch was in Cairo for a meeting on Wednesday of the quartet of sponsors of the stagnant Middle East peace process – the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States. A prisoner exchange would pave the way for a meeting between the Palestinian president and the Israeli prime minister, an end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip as well as an end to rocket fire by the Palestinians.
A period of calm [between Palestinians and Israelis] would allow them to sit down [at the negotiating table] and for the quartet to re-launch the peace process, Abul-Gheit said. Arab League Assistant Secretary General Ahmed Ben Helli earlier hit out at the quartet for not doing enough to rein in the deadly offensive launched by Israel after one of its soldiers was captured outside Gaza on June 12.
He condemned what he described as the silence of the quartet in the face of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and its failure to assume its responsibility for re-launching the peace process.
The quartet drafted the roadmap peace plan which has made next to no progress since its launch in 2003.
