Israel will soon restore security contacts – Abbas

PARIS (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said
on Monday he was confident that Israel would quickly resume
security contacts with the Palestinians, suspended after gunmen
killed three Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Israel severed security contacts after the flare-up in the
occupied West Bank on Sunday, when Israel also killed a senior
Islamic militant who opened fire on Israeli troops.

“As for relations and contacts with the Israelis, we are
completely certain they are going to resume very rapidly
because there are many things we can tackle with the Israelis
and which must be discussed,” Abbas said before talks in Paris
with French President Jacques Chirac.

“We are sorry about what happened yesterday. These events
undermine the truce and calm we had respected … We know
certain people want to undermine us and carry out acts such as
these which harm us,” he said.

The latest violence raised new doubts about an already
shaky eight-month-old ceasefire and over whether Israel’s
pullout from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of military rule
would spur renewed peacemaking.

Abbas was holding talks in Paris before meeting U.S.
President George W. Bush later this week. An aide said the
talks with Bush would focus on how to revive an international
peace plan known as the “road map.”