Israel and the Palestinians begin ceasefire talks today following a previously undisclosed meeting last week between Ariel Sharon and a close associate of Yasser Arafat, the highest level contact between the two sides in a year.
Israeli officials have described the meetings as the start of a process that will lead to a lasting settlement with the Palestinians. But Sharon’s political opponents questioned whether the talks are a sincere attempt to revive the peace process or a ploy to pressure the dovish Labour party into his government, and to meet US demands for the Israeli prime minister to commit himself to dialogue.
On Wednesday, Sharon met the speaker of the Palestinian legislature, Ahmed Qureia. Also known as Abu Ala, he has been a leading Palestinian negotiator for many years and is considered a potential successor to Arafat.
Sharon restated his conditions for reviving peace negotiations with the Palestinians, including ”an end to terror”, Arafat’s removal from power if not office, and fundamental reform of the Palestinian Authority.
But during the discussions the Israeli prime minister also returned to the tried and failed formula of selective withdrawal from West Bank cities where the Palestinian security forces are willing and able to curb attacks on Israel. It was agreed that this could form the basis of a ceasefire between the two sides. Arafat said that Qureia was acting on his authority and with the approval of the entire Palestinian leadership.
”There is a decision within the Palestinian leadership to continue talks with the Israelis,” Arafat said at his wrecked headquarters in Ramallah. ”We are ready for any talks as long as this might lead us to peace.”
Today, the head of the prime minister’s office, Dov Weisglass, will meet the Palestinian interior minister, Hani al-Hassan, at the US ambassador’s residence.
Weisglass told Israel Radio that the government is offering to withdraw from West Bank cities where Palestinian security forces ”succeed in preventing attacks or showing that they are making serious efforts to do so”. Among other things, al-Hassan is responsible for what remains of the Palestinian security forces.
Sharon’s motives were swiftly questioned. He is trying to persuade the opposition Labour party, which is demanding direct and unconditional negotiations with the Palestinians, to join a government of national unity.
The former Labour prime minister, Shimon Peres, said Sharon’s conditions for a settlement with the Palestinians were unrealistic and too inflexible to make progress. ”If Sharon sticks with his present plans, he won’t get very far,” Peres told Israel Radio.
Israeli commentators also noted that the White House is keen for Sharon to put out feelers to the Palestinians and to commit himself to the American ”road map” to peace to be discussed at a meeting in London later this month, in part to ease US attempts to win international support for an attack on Iraq.
After last month’s general election, Arafat appealed to Sharon for direct talks between the two men but the Israeli prime minister continues to refuse to meet the Palestinian leader, calling him the ”godfather of terrorism”.
Sharon and his generals have said they believe that a war in Iraq will radically change the face of the Middle East and set the stage to strip Arafat of his power. ”I have no doubt that after the end of the American operation in Iraq, if there will be such an operation … most of the efforts, most of the pressure and most of the activity will be invested in ending Yasser Arafat’s leadership of the Palestinian Authority,” said Weisglass.
He then clarified his remarks to say that Israel could accept Arafat retaining a ”symbolic role in the Palestinian hierarchy as a compensation for what is perceived as his historic contribution.
”It does not mean that he will be removed from the region or that his leadership will be physically ended … The Americans and the Europeans have been demanding for a long time that a prime minister be appointed, someone who will have effective authority in his hands, a person who will control what happens in the PA,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â