Sharon sees opening for deal with Palestinians
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that for the first time in nearly two years of fighting, he sees the possibility of a negotiated deal with the Palestinians.
Mr Sharon’s statement came just hours after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat accused Israel of crimes against humanity for expelling two people from the West Bank to Gaza yesterday.
The two are relatives of a Palestinian explosives expert accused by Israel of sending suicide bombers into Tel Aviv.
In a series of interviews with Israeli TV stations ahead of the Jewish New Year holiday that begins tomorrow, Mr Sharon called the Palestinian issue a threat to Israel’s future, but also said he sees hope for an agreement now.
Mr Sharon has ruled out talks with Mr Arafat, claiming that he has encouraged militants to attack Israel.
But Sharon said he could talk to “Palestinians who have reached the conclusion that by terrorism nothing can be achieved, and that the course on which Arafat has led them for decades, the path of terrorism and murder and so on, did not work”.
He told Channel Two television: “Now for the first time I see a possibility of opening the road to a political settlement.” However, he did not elaborate about what kind of settlement he envisioned. He said “discreet” contacts with Palestinians are continuing, but would not say with whom.
Mr Arafat complained that Israel is sabotaging efforts to stop the violence.
“Unfortunately everything we face here is more and more Israeli escalation,” he said after a meeting yesterday with Danish foreign minister Per Stig Moeller in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Denmark holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, and Mr Moeller is trying to win acceptance of a plan that envisions Palestinian statehood by 2005.
He said the EU concept is to combine all the plans now on the table and present a unified programme to the “quartet” dealing with the Middle East: the US, Russia, EU and UN.
In the past, Mr Sharon has said he would consider creation of a Palestinian state at the end of a long process. First there would be a years-long interim stage under which the Palestinians would maintain control of the territory they now hold under interim peace accords – about 40% of the West Bank and two thirds of Gaza.
If the interim period passed without incident, Mr Sharon has said he would suggest negotiations on key issues like the future of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian refugees and borders.
Palestinians reject the concept of another interim accord. They want a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza, with the Arab section of Jerusalem as its capital.
In the TV interviews, Mr Sharon also said Israel is not pressing the US to attack Iraq, but “we fully support any American decision that will be adopted with regard to continuation of the war on terrorism”.
He also warned that Libya is working to obtain weapons of mass destruction, implying that he meant nuclear weapons.
Yesterday, the Israeli military expelled a brother and sister of a Palestinian militant from the West Bank to Gaza, the first time Israel has forced relatives of militants to leave their home areas.
The Israeli military spirited the Palestinians, Kifah and Intisar Ajouri, in armoured vehicles to an orchard in Palestinian-controlled territory, avoiding Palestinian onlookers and reporters who waited at the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel for the arrival of the two.
