Beirut/Damascus - French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced
Tuesday in Beirut that he would return to Egypt for further talks
with President Hosny Mubarak on the situation in Gaza.
His visit to Lebanon is part of tour in the region aimed at
achieving a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Sarkozy arrived in Beirut
from Damascus on Tuesday.
'I will be heading back to Sharm el-Sheikh later today to continue
my talks with President Hosny Mubarak ... I believe Egypt will play a
vital role regarding the situation in Gaza,' Sarkozy said in a brief
statement to reporters following his meeting with Lebanese President
Michel Suleiman.
Sarkozy's second visit to Egypt in less than 24 hours would
coincide with ongoing talks in Cairo between a delegation from the
radical Islamic Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Egyptian
officials.
Hamas sent a delegation to Egypt on Monday for talks on the war in
Gaza, the first such contact since fighting began on December 27. The
delegation included two members of Hamas's political leadership, Emad
al-Alami and Mohammed Nasr.
'We want an immediate end to the Israeli aggression on our people
and the lifting of the blockade ... and we came to Egypt to listen to
the Egyptian proposal,' said Ousama Hamadan, Hamas spokesman in
Beirut, who is currently part of the delegation in Cairo told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by phone.
Hamas, which has controlled the strip since June 2007, has said it
would be open to a ceasefire with Israel if the Jewish state lifts
its blockade of Gaza and opens border crossings.
Sarkozy is scheduled to travel to southern Lebanon aboard a French
military helicopter and meet his country's troops who are working
with the United Nations Interim Forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL),
before leaving for Egypt.
'I am going to southern Lebanon to show solidarity with our
troops,' Sarkozy said.
The French president paid a two-hour visit to Lebanon and, along
with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, held talks
with Suleiman and Premier Fouad Seniora.
Sarkozy earlier paid a similar visit to Damascus where he held
talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
During a joint press conference with Assad, Sarkozy urged Syria to
put pressure on its ally Hamas to return to a truce in Gaza.
'It's up to Syria to put pressure on the players (in the conflict)
and notably on Hamas so that peace returns,' Sarkozy told
journalists.
Al-Assad strongly condemned the Israeli offensive, dubbing it a
'war crime.'
'Israel did not learn from the Lebanon war,' he said, adding that
the 'barbaric Israeli aggression on Gaza should immediately stop.'
Israel intensified its offensive in Gaza on Saturday, sending in
ground troops, in the operation aimed at halting rocket fire on
southern Israel by Palestinian militants in the enclave.
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