MIDDLE EAST: In a major blow for Israeli-Palestinian peace hopes, Egypt has been forced to cancel a conference, scheduled for today, at which it had intended to finalise terms for an end to Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli targets.
The Egyptians have been working behind the scenes for weeks, with some European diplomatic assistance, to win the support of various Palestinian factions for a one-year halt to the attacks. This was designed to pressure Israel into withdrawing from re-occupied West Bank areas and halting its assassinations of alleged intifada kingpins, and thus to clear the path to a resumption of peace negotiations. The Egyptian-led effort was being conducted in parallel with attempts initiated by Britain's Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair to achieve financial and other reforms within Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Mr Arafat had given his backing to the Egyptian initiative, and one of his closest deputies, Mr Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), was to have participated in today's culminating session. A draft of the ceasefire text had already been prepared.
However, the Islamic militant group Hamas, which was said by some Palestinian sources to have been reluctantly leaning towards accepting the ceasefire, yesterday announced that it would not attend the conference, because, it said, not all Palestinian factions would be represented there.
Egypt said it was cancelling the talks because Syria was refusing to allow members of Palestinian factions based in Damascus to attend.
The Palestinian sources blamed both Syria's President Bashar Assad for deliberately frustrating the ceasefire bid, and Hamas for getting cold feet.
Unsurprisingly, Israeli military officials had already poured cold water on the ceasefire effort.
In the village of Nazlat Issa, near Nablus in the West Bank, yesterday, the Israeli army demolished more than 60 shops and stalls it said had been constructed illegally.