WEST BANK: Germany's FM Guido Westerwelle meets Palestinian counterpart Salam Fayyad amid speculations prisoner deal near

Record ID: 559895

  • Title: WEST BANK: Germany's FM Guido Westerwelle meets Palestinian counterpart Salam Fayyad amid speculations prisoner deal near
  • Date: 25th November 2009
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (NOVEMBER 24, 2009) (REUTERS) WIDE OF COUNCIL OF MINISTERS CLOSE OF PALESTINIAN FLAG CLOSE OF SIGN READING COUNCIL OF MINISTERS CONVOY CARRYING GERMAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS GUIDO WESTERWELLE ARRIVING WESTERWELLE AND DELEGATION ARRIVING AT COUNCIL OF MINISTERS VARIOUS OF WESTERWELLE ENTERING OFFICE WIDE OF WESTERWELLE MEETING PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD FAYYAD AND WESTERWELLE SHAKING HANDS VARIOUS OF MEETING
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA97TF2A6IAOTAYOZ90EF8CS3BS
  • Story Text: German minister of foreign affairs Guido Westerwelle met on Tuesday (November 24) with his Palestinian counterpart, Salam Fayyad in the West Bank ahead of a round of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
    After meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday (November 23), Westerwelle visited the Holocaust Museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, where six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during world war two are commemorated.
    The German foreign minister also met Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman in the first of a series of two meetings they plan holding during the visit. Later Tuesday they are scheduled to hold a news conference.
    The German foreign minister's visit takes place as speculations intensify in Israel and the Palestinian Territories in recent days that a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Germany and Egypt, is close to be finalized.
    A delegation from Hamas, an Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, planned to meet Egyptian security officials in Cairo later in the day.
    Officials close to the talks said Israel had agreed to include in the exchange for the soldier, Gilad Shalit, some 160 prisoners whose release it had vetoed previously.
    Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants who tunnelled into Israel from the Gaza Strip in 2006. Israel has linked any major easing of its blockade on the territory on the soldier's return home.
    Sources on both sides told Reuters there were hopes that a deal might be struck by the end of the week, when the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha begins.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register