CAIRO - Hamas officials said Tuesday they are ready to commit to a cease-fire with Israel for at least a year in exchange for a full opening of Gaza's borders, as the group began a new round of truce talks with Egyptian mediators.
At the same time, foreign ministers of pro-U.S. Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, met in the United Arab Emirates in a show of unity in support for Egypt's efforts to forge a long-term truce and against Iran, Hamas' most important ally.
Egypt is trying to mediate a durable cease-fire in place of the temporary and increasingly wobbly truce that ended the Gaza war last month. It has set a Thursday deadline for the Islamic militant rulers of Gaza to accept a deal.
But the complicated details of an accord appeared unresolved with border security arrangements a key obstacle.
"There is an agreement in principle about a calm for one year," said Ahmed Abdel-Hadi, a Lebanon-based Hamas official. "But the movement could show flexibility regarding the time ... if there are guarantees and commitments to lift the sanctions and open the borders," he told Gaza's Al Quds Radio, signaling the possibility of extending the truce beyond one year.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the Palestinian group is open to extending the cease-fire for 18 months.
Abdel-Hadi said Hamas rejects a gradual opening of the border crossings or linking a truce deal to a release of Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit, held by Hamas-allied militants in Gaza since June 2006.
"We are going to deal with all the issues as one package, because we are going to avoid the trap of gradual implementation," he said.
Hamas demands that any truce include the opening of borders into Gaza, which Israel and Egypt have largely kept sealed since the group seized control of the territory from the rival Fatah faction in 2007.
Hamas also wants a role in administering the border crossings in recognition of its power in Gaza.
Israel says it won't ease the 20-month blockade of the densely populated and impoverished coastal strip without international guarantees that Hamas will be prevented from smuggling more weapons into Gaza. It does not want any deal to give Hamas a role in controlling Gaza border crossings.
Hamas remains committed to Israel's destruction and refused to renounce violence. Both the U.S. and Israel consider it a terrorist group.
Egypt is also pressing Hamas to start reconciliation talks with U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a unity government that can negotiate peace with Israel. Abbas, a moderate, runs a rival Palestinian government in the West Bank that has been conducting peace talks with Israel for more than a year.
But past attempts to broker a power-sharing deal among the rival Palestinians factions have failed. Prospects remain dim, with Hamas increasingly entrenched since its takeover of Gaza.
So Egypt has focused on what may be a more limited goal -- installing forces loyal to Abbas at the border crossings. Egypt's proposals would include some form of symbolic Hamas presence at the crossings along with European monitors.
Barhoum said the key to any truce is that Egypt open its crossing with Gaza, but added that the details of running the crossing into Gaza are open to discussion.
In the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi, foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Mideast nations gathered Tuesday for a hastily convened meeting that represented a more assertive effort by pro-U.S. Arab governments to push Hamas toward an Egyptian-mediated truce -- and away from Iran.
It made starkly clear the split in the Arab world between U.S. allies and the pro-Iranian camp, particularly Syria, which backs Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Syria was not invited to the meeting -- nor was Qatar, which has taken an increasingly pro-Hamas turn since Israel's Gaza offensive.
"We have to ensure with our unity that unwelcome, non-Arab parties do not interfere in our affairs in an unneeded manner," the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister, Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said in a clear reference to Persian Iran.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and allied Arab nations accuse Iran of using its alliance with Hamas to increase its influence in the region and gain a foothold on Israel's doorstep. Iran gives millions of dollars to Hamas and is believed to supply the militants with weapons -- though Tehran denies this.
Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Yemen and Abbas' Palestinian Authority also attended the meeting.
