Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, has pulled out of Israeli-Palestinian talks on the US-driven ”road map” announced earlier on Tuesday by his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon.
Abbas cited ”scheduling difficulties”, but the cancellation of the meeting, which was to be held on Wednesday, was interpreted as an indication that the Palestinian leader does not see any value in meeting Sharon.
”As far as Abbas is concerned, Sharon does not deliver anything,” the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Chris McGreal, told Guardian Unlimited.
”The Palestinians think Sharon uses them for propaganda, then all he does is harangue them about terror.”
The talks would have been the second meeting between the two men in a fortnight. Their announcement followed remarks on Monday by Sharon referring to the ”occupation” of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the first time he had used the word.
”To keep 3,5-million people under occupation is bad for us and them,” he said on Israel Radio.
The term ”occupation” is anathema to the Israeli right, which believes that Israel has a legitimate claim to the West Bank and Gaza Strip for religious and security reasons.
But Sharon has offered mixed signals on his commitment to the peace process, at present guided by the US-backed road map to the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state.
On Monday he told one of his party’s parliamentarians that the government would continue to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, even though the first stages of the road map require it to dismantle smaller illegal outposts and to freeze expansion of larger settlements.
”[The road map] certainly allows the unlimited building for your children and grandchildren, and I hope even for your great-grandchildren,” he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Monday confirmed that US President George Bush will meet Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders in the Middle East early in June, possibly in Jordan, to push the peace plan forward.
The road map was given conditional and reluctant approval by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday. – Guardian Unlimited Â