Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secured a historic deal on Saturday with his bitter political foe, Labour party leader Shimon Peres, to guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
The deal, to be signed on Sunday, heralds the rehabilitation of Peres after years in the political wilderness, as he becomes joint Deputy Prime Minister with Likud’s Ehud Olmert.
The agreement on a new coalition government, which follows weeks of fierce negotiations, comes days before the arrival in the Middle East of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and in the wake of intensive British mediation efforts to restart the stalled peace process.
Blair will arrive in Israel in time for the announcement of the outcome of this week’s critical meeting between senior Israeli and Palestinian officials on the final arrangements for January’s elections for a successor to Yasser Arafat as chairperson of the Palestinian Authority.
Blair, who has declared securing a Middle East peace deal his foreign-policy priority, will attempt to persuade Palestinian officials that Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and their own elections, can bring to an end four years of bloody violence that has claimed more than 4 000 lives.
Blair will meet with Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen — the favourite to replace Arafat — who has already called for an end to the intifada. He will also meet with Sharon and other senior Israeli officials.
Blair is staking his credibility as a peace broker in attempting to persuade Abbas to accept Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a return to negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state, in return for rapid material benefits — perhaps amounting to billions of dollars in aid.
A meeting called in London next year will then seek to bolster international support to help rebuild shattered institutions and return Palestinian society to a more acceptable standard of living. Blair’s trip follows a visit by Nigel Sheinwald, his chief foreign-policy adviser, to Israel last week to garner support for the meeting, which Israel has previously said it will not attend.
Sheinwald met with Sharon and his top aide, Dov Weisglass, for preparatory meetings, making it clear to Sharon that the British have no intention of using the proposed London meeting to leapfrog the first phase of the United States-British sponsored road map laying out the requirements towards final status negotiations.
Blair believes that with Israelis suspicious of the European Union and the Palestinians wary of the Bush administration, he can intervene to bring peace talks back on track.
Israel has expressed concerns that the London meeting, expected to be held at foreign minister level after the Palestinian election on January 9, will be an attempt to jump-start the diplomatic process by relieving the Palestinians of their responsibilities under the road map’s first stage to stop violence.
Pressure on the Palestinians to pursue a new course comes as Sharon has put together a new government. After heated political negotiations, Likud reached an agreement with Labour on the division of ministerial roles, officially bringing the Labour party into a new coalition government.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops pulled out of Khan Younis refugee camp in south Gaza on Saturday night after killing 11 Palestinians during a two-day raid launched in response to a series of mortar attacks on Jewish settlements. — Guardian Unlimited Â