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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met today with European Union (EU) High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. The Prime minister thanked him for the EU’s positive role, and for its efforts, in advancing the Rafiah agreement and for the EU’s agreement to fulfill the third-party role at the crossing.
EU envoy Solana commended Prime Minister Sharon for reaching the Rafiah agreement and said that the EU intends to invest all of its efforts in order to assist the successful implementation of the arrangement.
Prime Minister Sharon referred to the dangers that Israel sees in Hamas’s participation in the [upcoming Palestinian Authority] elections and said that Hamas had to disarm before the elections because it would be much more difficult to disarm it afterwards.
The two leaders discussed the need to strengthen the Lebanese government and to continue international pressure on Syria to cooperate on the inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
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