Abu Shbak: "If Gaza Withdrawal Succeeds, International Community Will Help
Extract Similar Israeli Steps"
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_04/084.html

GAZA, Palestine, April 12, 2004 (IPC)-- [Official PA website] Palestinian
Preventive Security Chief in the Gaza Strip, Colonel Rashid Abu Shbak, said
Monday that if the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip went
smoothly, the international community would definitely help extract more
similar moves in the West Bank.

Abu Shbak's remarks came in a press conference held at the Palestinian
Preventive Security's premises, amid possible Israeli unilateral withdrawal
from the Gaza Strip.

Asked whether there were certain mechanisms for that withdrawal, Abu Shbak
said that the underway international efforts involving the Israeli plan,
such as that of the United States and Egypt, were discussing such
mechanisms.

Colonel Abu Shbak emphasized that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)
and various Palestinian factions would abide by their commitments involving
the post-occupation era, a matter that would urge the international
community, including the said parties, to extract more similar Israeli steps
especially in the West Bank, which will remain under the Israeli military
control.

As for arrangements on borders, movement of Palestinian people and economy
to and from Israel, security on crossing borders and others, Abu Shbak made
clear that the Egyptian responsibility for the Egyptian side of the borders,
south of Gaza Strip, was governed by the Camp David Israeli-Egyptian peace
treaty.

"Palestinian commercial activities on the borderline are governed by the
Israeli-Palestinian Paris Economic Agreement, while the flow of Palestinian
travelers on both sides of the borders should be negotiated by the Egyptians
and the Israelis", Abu Shbak further clarified.

He expressed the PNA's readiness to take full control and judicial
responsibility for the Gaza Strip in case Israel pulled out its forces,
allowing no single Palestinian to break the law just as the situation was in
1994, when the PNA maintained the Palestinian 'achievements of peace'.

The Preventive Security Chief confirmed that the PNA was preparing for
general elections throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, and that
unless the various Palestinian factions agreed on dialogue to reach a
compromise, this would greatly help maintain Palestinian national unity.