The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, opened a dangerous new phase in the Middle East conflict on Thursday night when he delivered an ultimatum to the Palestinians to act against terrorists or he will embark on a ”unilateral separation” plan within months.
Sharon said: ”If there is no progress toward peace in a matter of months, then Israel will initiate the unilateral security step to disengage from the Palestinians.”
The prime minister, who described it as a ”disengagement plan”, would order the closure of some of the illegal Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank or Gaza. But he would consolidate Israel’s hold on the biggest remaining settlements, and increase their fortification and redeploy troops to offer further protection. The Palestinians would end up with a shrunken state, criss-crossed by heavily protected Jewish settlements.
The prospect of Sharon going his own way was denounced last night by the Palestinians, who would be the losers in such a move.
The US government, Israel’s strongest ally, said it would oppose any unilateral Israeli steps and urged Sharon to meet with his Palestinian counterpart ”very soon” for peace talks. The US has said repeatedly the only way to peace is through a negotiated settlement. ”The United States believes that a settlement must be negotiated and we would oppose any effort — any Israeli effort — to impose a settlement,” the White House spokesperson, Scott McClellan, said yesterday.
But he pointed out that some unilateral steps could help the road map, such as an Israeli decision to remove unauthorised outposts and isolated settlements.
The British government is also dismayed about the development.
Although Sharon insisted last night that the move would not mean a redrawing of the borders in Israel’s favour, one of Britain’s biggest worries is that the wall separating Israel from the West Bank — and which has eaten into big chunks of Palestinian land — would become increasingly an accepted fact.
The impact of Sharon’s action would be to create an Israel protected behind its wall and a series of heavily fortified settlements in the West Bank.
Asked by CNN what he would do if Israel started unilateral moves, the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said: ”With this unilateral approach, they may make peace with Israelis; they’ll not make peace with Palestinians.”
The Palestinians and Israelis each blame the other for the failure of the road map — the peace plan drawn up by the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, described the unilateral plan as ”worthless” and said its campaign of violence would continue.
Speaking at a conference on Israeli security at Herzliya, Sharon told the Palestinians that, in order to implement the road map, they would have to ”uproot terrorist groups” such as Hamas.
He said: ”I attach supreme importance to taking all steps which will enable progress toward resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians. However, in light of the other challenges we are faced with, if the Palestinians do not make a similar effort toward a solution of the conflict, I do not intend to wait for them indefinitely.”
Yosef Lapid, Israel’s justice minister, said that the unilateral steps should take place if after three months ”the Palestinians do not do what is necessary, including dismantling the terrorist organisations”.
A source in the Palestine Liberation Organisation said Sharon’s speech was a predictable extension of his policy to enclose Palestinian areas by barriers. ”Of course he is going to evacuate settlements, but only the ones that remain outside the wall,” he said.
Sharon will face huge internal difficulties from the right of his own Likud party, who will oppose the handing over of even a few settlements. – Guardian Unlimited Â