Sharon: More West Bank settlements would go for peace
Reuters
Date: 08-29-05
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday Israel would need to scrap further West Bank settlements under any final peace deal with Palestinians but would never cede its biggest enclaves in the occupied territory.
He was speaking a week after uprooting Jewish settlers from all 21 enclaves in Gaza and four of about 120 in the West Bank to "disengage" from conflict in occupied territory. U.S.-led mediators see the move as a catalyst for future peacemaking.
"Not all the settlements in Judea and Samaria today will remain ... when (we have completed) the last stage of the 'road map'," Sharon said, using biblical names for the West Bank and referring to an internationally-backed peace plan.
Sharon stressed any such decision would only be part of a permanent peace accord, a position that enables him to balance world demands for a viable Palestinian state against a domestic political need to boost his support in the rightist Likud Party.
"Road map" talks are unlikely to start at least until after general elections in Israel and the Palestinian territories due next year.
Sharon did not say how many more settlements might be abandoned. Dov Weisglass, a senior aide to Sharon, has said Israel expected 180,000 of some 245,000 Jewish settlers could remain as part of a final peace deal, with U.S. approval.
Israel removed all 8,500 settlers from Gaza and 500 from the West Bank this month -- the first dismantling of Jewish enclaves from land Palestinians want for a state.
But Sharon repeated in his remarks on Channel 10 television Israel would never give up West Bank settlement blocs where the majority of settlers live among 2.4 million Palestinians.
"These settlements will remain in our hands and will be linked territorially to Israel. These blocs have first rate strategic importance for Israel," he said.
Palestinians have condemned Israel's continued expansion of major West Bank settlements, fearing this will deny them a viable, geographically contiguous state.
NO MORE 'DISENGAGEMENTS'
In response to Sharon, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: "We regard the settlement activities and their increase these days as an obstacle to the peace process ... There must be a freeze on settlements ... so we can deal with all these issues in the 'road map'."
Abbas also demanded Israel halt construction of a West Bank barrier Israel says is intended to keep suicide bombers away from its cities and which Palestinians see as a land grab.
Sharon said Israel would not withdraw unilaterally from further territory and any further land handovers would come only as part of a final peace deal.
"The disengagement was a one-off step and I don't see another one," Sharon said.
President Bush, speaking a day after a suicide bombing critically wounded two guards at an Israeli bus station, said in Arizona Abbas should "reject violence, reject terrorism and build a democracy."
Palestinians welcomed "disengagement" but want Israel to also cede all of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, also taken in a 1967 Middle East war, for their future capital.
Israel says it expects to hand over Gaza settlement areas to Palestinian rule after withdrawing troops from the area next month, but will retain control of the northern West Bank.
Turning to Syria in the interview, Sharon said he did not believe it was the time for negotiations with Damascus, citing its support for Palestinian militants, Iran, and Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli-Syrian talks faltered in 2000 over the future of the Golan Heights Israel captured in the 1967 war.
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