MIDDLE EAST: Senior Palestinian officials sent out mixed messages yesterday on Egyptian involvement in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal from the area, but armed groups were unanimous in their rejection of any Egyptian role.
With Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon pushing his unilateral "disengagement" plan, Cairo has been talking to both the Palestinians and Israel about the possibility of some 200 Egyptian military advisers being sent to Gaza to retrain Palestinian security forces. Egypt also wants Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat to restructure his security forces and reduce his control over them.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is scheduled to meet today in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom and Defence Minister Mr Shaul Mofaz. Later, he is scheduled to meet Mr Arafat in Ramallah.
Egypt is said to have asked Israel to halt all military operations in Gaza as a condition for it sending military experts there.
Mr Sharon has said he plans to dismantle all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank by the end of 2005.
But representatives of the main Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been critical of the proposed Egyptian role in Gaza and of talk of a Jordanian role in the West Bank.
"We are amazed by, and deplore, the talk of a 'security role' for some Arab parties in Gaza and the West Bank," the groups said in a statement after meeting on Monday in Damascus.
They also criticised Egypt and Jordan for trying to "take over the Palestinian problem".
The Egyptian demands on Mr Arafat have put pressure on the Palestinian leader, who has long resisted reforms in the Palestinian Authority but who highly values support from Cairo.
One of his close associates yesterday expressed this ambivalence: "We don't want to be cut off from Egypt, and at the same time we don't want Egyptian interference," said Mr Sakher Habash, a member of the central committee of the ruling Fatah party.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Mr Nabil Shaath, however, said the Palestinian Authority was not opposed to an Egyptian role in Gaza. "They are coming as advisers and as experts, not as rulers," he said.
Mr Shaath's Egyptian counterpart, Mr Ahmed Maher, said a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians was a precondition for advisers being sent to Gaza.