The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers made an unusually enthusiastic public display of faith in the peace process yesterday before wrangling in private over Israel’s demand that Hamas should be disarmed.
Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas met hours before the Israeli army was due to begin pulling out of Bethlehem as the latest step along the road map, following its withdrawal from much of the Gaza Strip.
The tone for the talks was set earlier in the day by the head of the Israeli security service Shin Bet, Avi Dichter, who said there would be no further progress if the Palestinians who have assumed security responsibility for Gaza did not meet their obligations to disarm factional groups.
”The real test will be in two or three weeks when they have to deal with disarming the terrorist organisations,” he told a symposium at Tel Aviv University. ”We will not move on to transfer responsibility for the West Bank before it becomes totally clear that in Gaza the process of disarming terror groups has begun.”
Abbas and his security minister, Mohammed Dahlan, have consistently said that any attempt to disarm Hamas or dismantle its infrastructure would provoke a Palestinian civil war, and that they would rather draw armed groups into the political process.
Sources said that at yesterday’s meeting Sharon assured Abbas that there would be further releases of prisoners soon, including convicted ”terrorists” that the Israelis had been reluctant to free. He said a list of prisoners to be freed would be presented at the two sides’ next meeting in a week’s time.
Abbas pressed Sharon to lift the siege of Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah and to permit him to travel freely. Sharon said he would consider allowing Arafat to go to Gaza, but did not promise to allow him to return.
The two leaders agreed to reconstruct committees set up during the first years of peace efforts in the 1990s to discuss issues including security, prisoners and legal matters, according to officials.
Before they began their two-hour meeting, they pledged their commitment to peace with more enthusiasm than in the past, capped by a notably warm handshake which may have reflected the fact that their political fortunes are tied up with the road map.
Sharon assured the Palestinians that Israel did not want to rule them. ”We have no war with you. We do not want to oppress you. We would like to live side by side as good neighbours with honour and friendly relations,” he said.
But he hinted at the substance of the talks when he said: ”There will be no peace with terror.”
Abbas said violence was not the way forward. ”Our conflict with you is a political conflict and we will end it through political means.”
The Israeli army’s withdrawal from Bethlehem is seen as a test for Palestinian security in West Bank towns. The army said it had completed its withdrawal from most of Gaza, except for Jewish settlements and the Egyptian border. – Guardian Unlimited Â