Roundup: New Israeli, Palestinian leaders urged to push peace process

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will discuss with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki on the infection of the elections in both Palestine and Israel to Middle East peace process during his visit to South Africa later this week.

Pretoria announced on Wednesday that Abbas will pay a state visit from Thursday, one day after Israel's centrist Kadima Party headed by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert won the general elections.

This followed Palestine's hardling group Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January by a landslide.

South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday that Abbas's visit came at an important juncture, following the two elections.

"We believe that the elections both in Palestine and Israel offer a historic moment for the two peoples to really take a new approach to finding a peaceful solution," Pahad was quoted as saying by the SAPA news agency.

He urged both leaderships to take a historic responsibility to move forward to finding a peaceful solution for the conflict- ridden region.

"We hope that no party will take action that can set us back and that we can advance towards finding a solution," he said in Cape Town.

If the Palestinian-Israeli issue was not resolved, it could have serious consequences for other major volatile issues in the region, such as those in Iran, Iraq, and Syria, Pahad warned.

The talks between Mbeki and Abbas, scheduled for Friday in Cape Town, will focus on bilateral relations and the current situation between Israel and Palestine following the elections, South Africa 's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Abbas's 3-day visit "comes within the context of South Africa's priority to promote the peaceful resolution of conflict and post- conflict reconstruction and development in the Middle East, through .. continued dialogue with both the Israelis and Palestinians," it said.

South Africa's ruling African National Congress openly supported the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by Abbas. Mbeki's government had earlier this month invited leaders of Hamas for talks in South Africa, although no date has been set for those meetings.

Pahad reiterated South Africa's acceptance of Hamas's victory in the Palestinian election as the democratic outcome of an election described as fair and transparent.

He said it was necessary to interact with Hamas to convince them their victory was the result of the Oslo process, and that it was in the interests of the Palestinian people to respect all elements of this process, which included a peaceful solution based on the two-state principle.

"We believe the Palestinian people by and large voted for Hamas for three or four basic reasons, among many others. They want peace, they want a Palestinian state, and they want an improvement in their living conditions," Pahad said.

"Hamas has a responsibility to implement the outcomes of the Oslo process, as well as United Nations resolutions (all aimed at peace)," he said.

This week's Arab summit in Khartoum had also called on the parties to return to the roadmap to peace for the two states to live in peace side-by-side, Pahad said.

Abbas, who is in Khartoum for the summit, arrives in Cape Town on Thursday.

He will be officially welcomed by Mbeki at the parliament on Friday morning, before he addresses a joint sitting of the two houses.

Apart from meeting government leaders, Abbas will also hold discussions with the leaders of various political parties, and the Muslim and Jewish communities.

He will also travel to Johannesburg, among other things, paying a courtesy call on former president Nelson Mandela, before departing on Saturday.

Source: Xinhua