Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday he ordered security meetings with the Palestinians as he arrived in the United States for talks with President George W. Bush, hoping to secure support for his handling of the conflict with the Palestinians, said reports.
Sharon is due to hold meetings Monday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said AFP.
He is due also to meet with Bush Tuesday before traveling Wednesday to New York to appear at the United Nations, added the agency.
The new US administration is expected to take a less active role in the Middle East peace process and is prepared to give Sharon time to resume talks with the Palestinians.
Prior to his departure, Sharon told reporters that he "ordered the resumption of security discussions with the Palestinians aimed at operations to reduce the violence where possible," according to Haaretz newspaper.
"We do not know what the results will be" of the meetings, said Sharon, and explained that the talks would involve only security officials and not be political in nature.
Talks leading to a political settlement cannot resume "as long as there are murders and attacks," he said.
Sharon said meetings would take place in the coming days and confirmed that Avi Dichter, head of Israel's internal security service Shin Beth, had met with Palestinian security officials Saturday night, said Haaretz.
According to Haaretz, dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has been pursued in three different arenas:
1- Unofficial political-diplomatic talks: Sharon’s aide, Yossi Ginosar, has unofficially represented Israel in discussions held in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's office; and the Prime Minister's son, Omri Sharon, has spoken with Arafat's economic adviser Muhammad Rashid.
2- Top level security talks: Saturday's meeting between Dichter and al-Hindi could be the forerunner of a series of talks between top army officers and Shin Bet officials and leading figures from the PA's security apparatus. In such meetings, Israel tries to keep away from senior PA officials it believes have “condoned or actively conspired in terror attacks.”
3- Liaison contacts in the field: Israeli army officers and civil administration officials maintain contacts with PA counterparts in such frameworks as the District Coordination Office in Gaza. The character and level of such contacts varies from region to region.
Sharon on Saturday warned Palestinian President Yasser Arafat that an easing of siege of the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be cancelled if the Palestinians did not put an end to violence and resume security cooperation, the paper quoted him as saying.
On departure, Sharon said the trip was aimed at strengthening the "special relationship" between Israel and its closest ally and presenting his government's positions on the Middle East and the future of the peace process.
"We believe in the principle that the settlement of differences and conflicts must be done through peaceful means and through negotiations," he said.
On the plane, Sharon said Israel and the United States were also united in the "fight against Islamic terrorism" and concerns over the "danger of ballistic weapons," AFP quoted him as saying.
Israeli army radio said Sharon would present a plan seeking a three-month period of calm to enable negotiations with the Palestinians to resume on "long-term interim arrangements."
“If Arafat is ready to accept Sharon's proposed plan for ongoing interim agreements, Sharon is ready to evacuate a number of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip to give the Palestinian Authority more territorial contiguity in the densely populated area,” a source told Haaretz, referring to one of Sharon’s plans.
But Sharon's offer does not include a similar arrangement in the West Bank, he said.
The underlying assumption of Sharon's plan is that there is currently no chance for a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians that would settle all the outstanding differences between the two peoples and reach an end to the conflict, said Haaretz.
Therefore, his proposal to the Palestinians is based on partial agreements.
To ease Palestinian concerns that his offer is a trick meant to leave most of the territory in Israeli hands for a long period of time, Sharon will emphasize that this first interim agreement would be followed by others, in which the Palestinians would make gains, said Haaretz.
Sharon aims to grant the Palestinians extensive economic benefits and to be very flexible on the issue of water allocations.
His aides have told Sharon that such benefits are not enough to bring Arafat to accept an interim agreement, the paper added.
Meanwhile, The National and Islamic forces, a coalition of Palestinian groups including Fateh movement and the Islamic movement Hamas, denounced Washington for supporting the "murderer" Sharon and called for demonstrations on Wednesday to break the blockade that has devastated the economy, said AFP.
Two Palestinians, one a 10-year-old boy, were injured Sunday when Israeli troops shot them with live ammunition during clashes near the Karni crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel, hospital sources said.
In the evening, an Israeli soldier was lightly injured by three mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip, in what a military source called the first incident where shells from the territory had fallen inside Israel, said Haaretz.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres called the incident "very serious" and said Israel was waiting for the Palestinian Authority "to fulfill its commitments to put an end to the violence."
Arafat, meanwhile, arrived Sunday evening in Jordan, where he will hold talks with King Abdullah ahead of a two-day summit of Arab leaders in Amman due to open March 27, said reports.
Arafat also dispatched Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath to London, Paris, Brussels and other European capitals to drum up support for Palestinian demands that a UN force be sent to the territories, said AFP -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
