AFP
Sharon angers Palestinians with vow to keep control of settlements
Date: Tuesday April 13
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Palestinians warned that the United States would be torpedoing the peace process if it bowed to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pledge to keep control of West Bank settlement blocks.
But after Sharon arrived in Washington, the United States gave its most positive signal yet in favor of his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip, calling it a "historic opportunity".
Before leaving for the US capital, Sharon vowed to maintain Israeli control over six West Bank settlement blocks, two of which lie deep within Palestinian territory.
Sharon sees US President George W. Bush's endorsement of his "disengagement plan" as a vital prerequisite for his attempts to win backing for the project from his right-wing Likud party and other members of his governing coalition.
On the eve of a White House meeting Wednesday between Sharon and Bush, the State Department said Washington wanted "to take advantage of" the proposal to advance the "roadmap" for peace leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.
"We do recognize that there is a historic opportunity here with the announced plans to withdraw from Gaza," spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The Israeli premier was expected to meet US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice later Tuesday and talk Thursday to US Secretary of State Colin Powell before returning to Jerusalem.
Right-wing opponents have criticised Sharon's proposal to evacuate all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and another four in the West Bank. The premier is hoping to deflect such opposition by winning US guarantees of continued control over other settlements and a renunciation of Palestinian refugees' right to return to present-day Israel.
"I am convinced that the prime minister will obtain in Washington the backing for his initiative," deputy premier Ehud Olmert told army radio.
However Danny Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said points of disagreement remained that would hopefully be resolved at the talks.
Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath said the next few days of consultations on the possible Gaza Strip withdrawal will prove vital for the Middle East peace process.
"If the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza moves on the way of reconciliation, it will lead to peace," Shaath told a news conference in Slovenia.
But Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said Sharon's declarations on the settlements were a disaster for the peace process.
"The maintenance of six settlement blocks in the West Bank is a recipe for closing all the doors in the peace process and its destruction," he told AFP.
Sharon says he has no option but to implement unilateral measures in the absence of a Palestinian partner in the peace process, accusing prime minister Ahmed Qorei and veteran leader Yasser Arafat of not cracking down on militants.
Meanwhile, Hungarian police announced that they had foiled an attempt to bomb the new Holocaust museum in Budapest, due to be opened by visiting Israeli President Moshe Katsav this week.
Katzav, 59, said after meeting President Ferenc Madl that he was not perturbed by earlier reports of an attempt on his life and joked it off.
"I trust Hungarian law enforcement and I also trust the Israeli security service," he added.
Israel's Shin Beth domestic security service, meanwhile, said Tuesday it had foiled an attempt by Palestinian militants to carry out a suicide attack using a bomb laced with HIV-infected blood during the Passover holiday.
Security sources also said 10 people had been arrested after Israeli security forces smashed a cell which smuggled weapons to the Palestinian territories across the Israeli-Egyptian border.
Six Jewish settlers were also detained late Tuesday and one hospitalised after clashes broke out with Israeli police in the southern West Bank against Sharon's intentions to evacuate the Gaza Strip, police and settlers said.
SOURCE
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.