Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s top adviser made an impromptu visit to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian officials aimed at crafting a new truce by militant groups. Osama al-Baz met Friday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and prime minister Mahmud Abbas for three hours and discussed means of salvaging the moribund peace process, said Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath, who also attended the meeting. “The Palestinian leadership welcomes this visit, as Egypt always stood by the Palestinians and is now looking for a way out of the crisis,” Shaath told reporters after the meeting in Arafat’s battered West Bank headquarters. “There is a push for a new truce, a real truce, that both sides will have to respect,” he said. The truce, which Abbas brokered and Palestinian militant groups proclaimed on June 29, collapsed after a bomber from Hamas blew himself up and killed 20 passengers on a Jerusalem bus Tuesday and Israel responded by assassinating a senior official of the Islamist group on Thursday. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.