Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei met in Amman with the Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres to discuss promoting peace efforts in the region, Israeli sources reported on Saturday.
The meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the international economic summit, came in the wake of three days of escalation from both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides.
Following t he one-hour long meeting, Peres said it was good to identify problems and expressed the need to suggest solutions.
"There are real problems," he said, but added there was real resolve to solve them.
"I was very pleased that [Qurei] said that the Palestinian Authority will take all the necessary measures to bring security" said Peres.
On the other hand, Qurei said it would be putting the peace process back on track would give the Gaza withdrawal a more serious and practical effect, adding that preparation for the after the withdrawal should start now.
"There’s an attempt to get the peace process back on track in a bid to make the withdrawal from Gaza, if it happens, a serious, real and practical step," Qurei said.
Peres said his talks with Qurei were more than coordination.
"It’s planning. It’s very complicated. There are a lot of details," he added.
Peres expressed hopes that Israel’s pullout from Gaza would take place as scheduled in August. "Any [further] delay will endanger the whole process," he said.
Peres linked the firing of Mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlement to an internal feud between Hamas and the Fatah ruling party over the local government elections.
Hamas, however, insists that they have responded to the air strike that killed two of its operatives in Khan Younis few days ago.
Israel is concerned over the Hamas’ intention to participate in the upcoming Palestinian Parliament elections, slated for July 17. Peres commented to reporters in response to a question on the strong showing of Hamas in the local elections and the upcoming July elections, "Clearly this is a problem," adding that Israel would not interfere in election process.
"But we don’t want to intervene. We don’t want to create an impression that we are playing a role in the Palestinian elections," he said.
Israel threatened earlier that if Hamas wins the elections, it won’t withdraw from the Gaza strip, a reason that seems be behind Israel insisting to delay the withdrawal from July 10, to August 15, despite the religious reasons claimed to be the reason.
