Suleiman demands Israel conclude Shalit negotiations within three months

Thursday August 14, 2008 23:56 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Egyptian Intelligence Chief, Omar Suleiman, demanded Israel to speed up talks on the file of the captured Israeli Soldier, Gilad Shalit, and reach a prisoner swap deal with the Palestinian resistance groups within three months.

Omar Suleiman

The Egyptian demand came during the recent meeting that brought together Suleiman and Amos Gilad and Ofer Dekel, Israeli officials in charge of the talks on Shalit.

Suleiman demanded the Israeli officials achieve a prisoner swap deal within the three coming months after Hamas requested Egypt to intervene and continue the indirect talks and the negotiations regarding the reopening of the Rafah Border Terminal, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli delegates returned from Cairo last week after the talks reached an impasse, but during the beginning of this week the delegates returned to Cairo to resume the talks.

Gilad and Dekel told the Israeli Newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday that Egypt has requested Israel speed up the talks. They claim that as long as Hamas has Shalit, it will be protected from any Israeli major offensive, and its leaders are protected from assassinations. They added that Egypt confirmed that Hamas acquired more power after the latest prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Therefore Hamas maintains its demands that Israel should release detainees who are sentenced to high terms despite the Israeli rejection.

Several Hamas officials said that Israel paid a high price to return its dead soldiers from Hezbollah, and now it has to pay a higher price to return its soldier who is alive.

Recently, some Hamas leaders demanded that the file of prisoner swap talks should be transferred from Egypt to an international official, while Israel prefers to keep the file in the hands of Egypt.

palestine | prisoners | news report saed at imemc dot org