The Israeli prime minster, Ariel Sharon, last night further entrenched his obstacles to a peace settlement by ruling out the division of Jerusalem or the return of Palestinian refugees from negotiations.
His public objections came hours after it was revealed that Israel is demanding more than 100 changes to the United States’ ”road map” toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, confirming the fears of sceptics on both sides who say Sharon is not serious about peace.
In London, the key mediators in the conflict — the ”Quartet” of the US, Russia, the EU and the UN — criticised the violence on both sides and called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in the more than two years of intifada which has claimed more than 2 500 lives.
It also urged Israel to ease the dire humanitarian situation in the occupied territories, and pressed for early meetings of the Palestinian legislature and leadership bodies to fulfil Yasser Arafat’s pledge to devolve some power to a prime minister.
But a senior US state department official, William Burns, told Palestinian leaders at the Quartet meeting that there is no prospect of the peace process moving forward until after any conflict in Iraq.
Sharon told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem last night that while he is prepared to make ”painful compromises” for a lasting peace settlement, he is not prepared to surrender control of the city Israelis consider their capital even if half of it is Palestinian.
”I don’t think there is any right to anyone to make any compromise when it comes to Jerusalem,” he said. ”We are guardians of Jerusalem for future generations.”
The Israeli prime minister also rejected the right of return for Palestinians who fled or were driven out in 1948. Sharon, who has pledged to find another one-million Jewish immigrants by the end of the decade, described Palestinian refugees as ”a danger” to Israel’s existence because of their numbers, thought to total about four million.
While Sharon has long made his core requirements for a peace deal clear — includ- ing an ”immediate end to terror”, the removal of Yasser Arafat and the overhaul of the Palestinian political system — the newspaper Ha’aretz revealed yesterday that Israel also wants the timetable for implementation of the ”road map” scrapped in favour of progress according to performance. That could drag the process out for years.
Sharon also intends to demand that the Palestinians fulfil a series of commitments before Israel has to take a single step toward implementing its side of any agreement.
Israel wants a Palestinian state to have only limited sovereignty, including complete demilitarisation. Israel would control its borders and air space, and it would be forbidden to establish diplomatic ties with any ”enemy” of Israel. – Guardian Unlimited Â