RAMALLAH (West Bank), June 26: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Thursday that Palestinian factions could announce a truce in the coming hours, but Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups said it was still a matter of days.
“For the moment there is no official decision on this issue, but there could be an announcement in the next few hours,” Mr Arafat told reporters here after meeting Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said moments later that “the document is ready, but we still don’t know when it will be announced, today, in the next few days or in a week.”
Arafat’s Fatah, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian factions have been discussing a truce for weeks, following a proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas.
But a Palestinian source close to the negotiations said: “The agreement will be announced possibly in two days because Hamas and Islamic Jihad want to submit the final version to Egyptians, the Saudis and the Qataris.”
“They will present it to Mahmud Abbas tomorrow,” the source added on condition of anonymity. But a senior Hamas official, Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, said his movement would make a final decision on the truce “in the coming days.”
Mr Rantissi, speaking to AFP in Gaza City, said: “The discussions and agreements (on a truce) are over, but steps must be taken within the movement before a final decision, which will be made in the coming days.”
Giving no details of these steps, Rantissi said Hamas would inform Mr Arafat and Egypt, which has been acting as a broker, of its decision as soon as it was reached.
And the leader of the rival Islamic Jihad, Mr Mohammad al-Hindi, said that “our internal discussions will soon end, but the announcement won’t be within hours.”
Mr Hindi hinted that Mr Arafat and Mr Shaath were jumping the gun slightly and said: “We don’t have a final draft thus far.”—AFP
