Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet three top United States envoys on Wednesday in a bid to pin down Washington’s support for his Gaza pull-out plan after warning that ”dangerous initiatives” could be forced on Israel unless the deadlock in the peace process is broken.
The meeting between Sharon and the three US envoys — Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and National Security Council Middle East affairs head Elliot Abrams — was due to take place in Jerusalem after the trio met with Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei in the West Bank town of Jericho.
The talks with Qorei began at about 4pm local time but there was no comment from the diplomats or the Palestinians before they entered a hotel in the sleepy Jordan valley town.
Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv late on Wednesday, Sharon said he had no option but to push forward with his disengagement plan, which will see Israel evacuate most, if not all, of the settlements in Gaza while strengthening control over other settlements in the West Bank.
”Israel is compelled to take an initiative which will prevent a political crisis,” Sharon said.
”The world won’t let the deadlock continue. A deadlock will, sooner or later, bring a dangerous political initiative for Israel,” he said, pointing out that Israel is facing an ”unusually dangerous” political, economic and security situation.
Most of the world believes that Israel ”should first withdraw from all the [Palestinian] territories and then, only after signing an agreement, Palestinian terror will stop”, he said.
”From their point of view, the Israelis demand, under the road map, that the Palestinians first conduct an effective struggle against terror, and only afterwards will there be political negotiations, is not acceptable,” he said.
Sharon has said he will only embark on the disengagement plan if he has the support of the US. He is due to hold talks with President George Bush in the White House on April 14.
Apart from his battle to win Washington’s backing for the project, he is also facing opposition from right-wing members of his coalition Cabinet, including members of his own Likud party.
In a bid to steamroll the project through, Sharon decided earlier this week that he would allow the entire Likud party membership to vote on the project, hoping that a victory in a referendum would blunt opposition from his senior colleagues.
Qorei said in a speech to deputies on Wednesday that any pull-out from Gaza ”must open the way for resuming peace negotiations” with Israel. He has still to meet with Sharon since coming to power last October.
He also voiced criticism of the Bush administration, accusing Washington of ”blatant bias” towards Israel.
He was joined at the meeting in Jericho by his Finance Minister, Salam Fayad, and the Negotiations Minister, Saeb Erakat.
Meanwhile, 12 Palestinians were arrested early on Thursday after an hour-long gun battle raged at a psychiatric hospital in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Eight were members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, Palestinian security sources said. The other four were members of the hospital’s staff, they added.
An Israeli military source said all were wanted for their suspected involvement in preparing attacks in Israel.
”Thanks to our operation, we have averted large-scale attacks that this group was preparing,” said the commander of the unit that carried out the arrest operation, identified as Colonel Nadav.
”They came out when they realised that there was no escape. They left their weapons and ammunition in the hospital,” Nadav told army radio. — Sapa-AFP