Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, boosted by high opinion poll ratings, was turning to Egypt and the United States on Tuesday to help him push through his troubled plan to pull out of Gaza.
Before a visit by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to Cairo next Monday, where he is to hold talks with President Hosni Mubarak on the pullout plan, Sharon’s bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, is to meet in Washington with Bush administration officials who have already stated their support for the project.
A statement from his office said Sharon spoke by phone with Mubarak on Monday. The Egyptian leader ”reiterated his support for the disengagement plan and stressed his willingness to assist in advancing it”.
Egypt is emerging as a key mediator in the pullout plan, with Sharon hopeful Cairo can use its influence with the Palestinians to ensure security in the territory after an Israeli withdrawal.
Sharon’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said he believes its involvement could help persuade the undecided within the Cabinet to endorse what is a watered-down version of the original ”disengagement plan”.
The original was rejected by members of the premier’s own right-wing Likud party in a referendum a month ago.
”I hope that the dialogue with Egypt will help us to get a majority [in government] in favour of the plan,” Olmert told army radio.
Olmert added that he believes Sharon will succeed in garnering a majority among his 23 ministers to approve his plan by next Sunday’s Cabinet meeting when it is due to be put to a vote, predicting that Shalom will come on side.
Shalom was originally scheduled to visit Cairo on Thursday but the trip was put back four days on Tuesday until after the Cabinet meeting.
Sharon was forced to postpone the vote at this week’s Cabinet as he still apparently lacked a majority. He also pulled out of a parliamentary debate and non-binding vote on the project on Monday for similar reasons.
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sharon’s archrival within Likud, has been leading the opposition to the plan within the government but the main Labour party leader, Shimon Peres, said the two will likely reach a compromise.
”I do not rule out the possibility that there will be a compromise between Bibi [Netanyahu] and Sharon, a compromise that in my opinion is of no significance.
”They will remove three settlements over one-and-a-half to two years. That’s what will come of this whole mountain.”
Sharon had initially planned to withdraw all 21 of the Gaza settlements but his new plan will involve an initial limited evacuation while further phases will be subject to later votes in the Cabinet.
Asked in a poll published by the Maariv daily whether they supported Sharon’s or Netanyahu’s position over the disengagement plan, 55% of the public backed the prime minister and 32% backed the finance minister.
US President George Bush enraged Arab opinion by enthusiastically endorsing the pullout plan, which will also see Israel strengthen control over large settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.
Weisglass’s visit, during which he was to hold talks on Tuesday with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, is designed to persuade Washington that Sharon has no intention of abandoning the project.
Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Daniel Ayalon, said Bush’s government was impatient for action.
”The Americans prefer that the plan be presented rapidly. We must avoid a vacuum because it could encourage presentation of other political plans and other pressures.”
While Sharon’s government was putting out diplomatic feelers to Cairo and Washington, relations with its closest ally in the Muslim world took a sharp downturn as it voiced ”extreme regret” at recent harsh criticism by Turkey.
”The comments of the Turkish prime minister [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] yesterday [Monday] in Istanbul as well as his previous statements are extremely regrettable,” the foreign ministry said in a unprecedentedly strong statement.
Erdogan said on Monday that Sharon ”has not helped us promote peace in the Middle East”, and described Israel’s operations in Gaza as ”state terror”. — Sapa-AFP