Israeli and Palestinian negotiators made progress on Friday in their talks on preparations to operate the Rafah Border Crossing in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
The crossing will be run by a Palestinian – Egyptian teams, under European supervisions, Israel will install surveillance equipment to remotely monitor the residents entering the Gaza Strip.ÂÂ
The progress was reached through a series of meetings between the Palestinian chief negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erekat, and Sharon’s advisor Dov Weissglas on Friday.
The talks are part of the preparations conducted by the two sides ahead of the upcoming Abbas-Sharon summit.
The Israeli online daily Haaretz reported that Erekat and Weissglas met for two hours in Tel Aviv, and went through the details of the upcoming summit. They agreed to form two joint professional teams to conduct all of the arrangements for operating the Rafah border crossing, between Gaza and Egypt.
The Abbas-Sharon summit is most likely to take place on Tuesday, Weissglas and Erekat agreed on Friday to hold other rounds of talks ahead of the summit.ÂÂ
Also, a Palestinian source reported that King Abdullah of Jordan will most likely attend the Sharon-Abbas talks.
Meanwhile, Quartets’ envoy James Wolfensohn met earlier on Friday with the Israeli Minister of Defense and discussed the latest developments in the area.
Wolfensohn also met with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, at the presidential headquarters in Gaza.
Abbas informed Wolfensohn of the latest developments after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and some areas in the West Bank.
