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Sharon indicates he wants peace |
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February 10, 2001
JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon assured Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in a first phone call Friday that he is interested in resuming peace talks, provided violence stops — and also invited defeated rival Ehud Barak to join the new government as defense minister. As Arafat and Sharon, former archenemies, took first hesitant steps toward each other, Israeli troops and Palestinian militiamen fought gun battles and Islamic militants burned Sharon effigies amid threats to detonate more bombs in Israel. In the Gaza Strip, a 17-year-old Palestinian shepherd was killed by Israeli tank fire, Palestinian police said. They said there were no clashes in the area. Twenty-seven Palestinians and a Belgian news photographer were injured in a firefight on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah. Palestinian gunmen taking cover in empty high-rise apartments fired across a traffic circle at Israeli troops shooting from jeeps and nearby rooftops. In the West Bank village of Al Khader, a 16-year-old Palestinian was critically injured in a clash with Israeli troops. Marwan Barghouti, one of Arafat's lieutenants in the West Bank, said the Palestinian uprising against Israel, now in its fifth month, would continue. ``There is no chance to negotiate with Sharon, we must stop wasting our time thinking about that,'' Barghouti said. Barak, meanwhile, informed Arafat in a letter that concessions offered by his government were now off the table. ``The Prime Minister officially informed the Palestinians, as he did at the beginning of the negotiations, that nothing is agreed until everything has been agreed and therefore it is only signed agreements which are valid and binding,'' said David Baker, an official at the prime minister's office. The Palestinians have demanded that negotiations resume where they left off last month. Barak had offered the Palestinians a state in nearly all of the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem, and showed willingness to dismantle a large number of Jewish settlements. Negotiations bogged down over the fate of Palestinian refugees and the future of a key Jerusalem shrine revered by Muslims and Jews. Sharon said Friday that Barak's offers ``made it difficult for all future Israeli governments.'' Still, Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot daily, he felt sorry for his predecessor. ``So many dreams, and everything crumbled between his fingers,'' Sharon said of Barak whom he trounced by a margin of almost 25 percentage points. In their first post-election meeting Friday, Sharon offered Barak the post of defense minister in a joint government. Barak reportedly did not rule out the idea. Barak's Labor Party is studying an invitation by Sharon to join the government. On Friday afternoon, Sharon received a call from Arafat — their first direct contact since the election. Arafat, who was chased out of his Beirut stronghold in 1982 by an Israeli army led by Sharon, congratulated the new Israeli leader on his election victory and the recent birth of twin grandsons. Arafat told Sharon he was interested in resuming peace talks, according to Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin. Sharon responded that Israel and the Palestinians would have to find a way to reach peace, and that security was very important to both peoples. Sharon told Arafat he wanted to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians, on condition that violence ended and that the Palestinian Authority waged an uncompromising war against terrorism, according to Gissin. However, Palestinian negotiators said that if Sharon stuck to his ideas, peace talks would never get off the ground. Sharon has said he wants to negotiate a non-belligerency agreement, not a final peace deal. In a long interim period, the Palestinians would have to make do with the land they already control — 42 percent of the West Bank and two-thirds of Gaza. ``We will not go to negotiations to discuss a withdrawal from 42 percent of the land, or to reach interim agreements,'' said Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath. ``We are not going to beg him for an agreement, and he should know very well that he doesn't scare us.'' Sharon said in interviews Friday that he hoped to ease some of the restrictions that have disrupted daily life in the Palestinian areas in recent months. Under Barak, Palestinians were confined to their communities for weeks at a time. The U.N. coordinator in the Palestinian territories, Terje Larsen, met with Sharon on Friday and said he was encouraged by what he heard. Larsen said Sharon told him he would try to arrange a meeting with Arafat. ``My firm impression is that Mr. Sharon has a deep understanding of the critical economic situation of the Palestinians at the moment and, given that there is stability and no violence, that he will pursue a policy of no collective punishment,'' Larsen said. The U.N. envoy added that Sharon is willing to meet the international committee headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell that is investigating the violence between Israel and the Palestinians. In the Gaza Strip, two Islamic militant groups — Hamas and Islamic Jihad — staged separate rallies drawing thousands of supporters, and renewed threats to detonate bombs in Israel. ``All of us are ready to blow ourselves up and make a new road toward the liberation of Palestine,'' said Ali Suleiman, 22, waving Hamas' green flag. ``Sharon ... should start preparing black bags for the remains of his soldiers and his people, because we are coming to Tel Aviv,'' he said.
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