French president sees “glimmer of hope” in reaching Gaza truce
French President Nicolas Sarkozy headed back to Egypt Tuesday evening for more talks with his Egyptian counterpart saying he sees a "glimmer of hope" in achieving a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
"Time is against us, we must find a solution and that is why I am heading back to Sharm el-Sheikh," Sarkozy said after visiting French troops serving with the UN force in southern Lebanon. He added that he wished to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak because there was a "glimmer of hope" for ending the bloodshed.
"In the face of all this violence, all this pain, all the sacrifices, the least we can do is multiply our efforts to find a solution," he said. If each party waits for the other to make a move there will be tragedies, tragedies and more tragedies," he warned, referring to Israeli strikes on three UN-run schools on Tuesday that killed at least 45 people. The latest killings "reinforced" his determination to reach a ceasefire, he said.
Sarkozy earlier met with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman as part of a regional tour that included stops in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Syria. "Egypt has a considerable role to play," Sarkozy told reporters after his talks with Sleiman. The French leader said he had spoken by telephone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the two agreed to meet again on Tuesday. They had met on Monday at the start of Sarkozy”s visit to the Middle East. "I wish to continue our work and our talks will probably last late into the evening," he said.
An Egyptian official said Sarkozy would later hold a press conference with Mubarak. "A joint appeal in favour of an immediate end to hostilities in the Gaza Strip is expected to be made," a diplomatic source in Egypt told AFP on condition of anonymity. The source said that Egypt, France and the European Union "shared the same ideas on this crisis", calling for "an end to the Israeli military operation and Palestinian rocket fire." A European source said that EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana, who has been part of a separate EU peace mission to the region, would also be in Sharm on Tuesday evening. Sarkozy, who handed over the rotating presidency of the European Union to the Czech Republic on New Year”s Day, has also held talks with leaders in Israel and the West Bank.
On Tuesday he met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and urged Syria to put pressure on its ally Hamas to return to a truce in Gaza, which has been under a tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months. Assad likened the situation there to a "concentration camp" and "slow death" for the 1.5 million inhabitants, of whom 56 percent are children. The offensive in Gaza has killed at least 635 Palestinians, including more than 160 children, with more than 2,700 wounded, according to Gaza medics. Three civilians and one soldier have been killed by rocket fire inside Israel since the offensive was launched, while five soldiers have died inside the Gaza Strip.