dall'Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com
Last Update: 15/07/2003 09:23
PM to Blair: Security fence construction to go on
By Aluf Benn and Sharon Sadeh, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/317805.html
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, visiting 10 Downing
Street on Monday night, told Prime Minister Tony
Blair that constuction of the West Bank security
fence will continue, despite international
opposition.
"The security fence is neither a
political nor a military
border, rather an obstacle to
infiltration," Sharon told
Blair.
Sharon declared that continuing
pressure must be applied on
Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas and his security
chief Mohammed Dahlan, to convince them to
dismantle the terrorist infrastructure within
Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.
"If this does not happen, there will be great
danger to Israel, and a much greater danger to
the existence of the Palestinian Authority,"
Sharon told his British counterpart. Sharon
also asked that Britain issue a public
statement calling for delegitimization of
Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and other militant
groups.
A senior Israeli official said "There must be
recognition that these groups cannot exist, if
the Palestinians intend to move forward." He
said that the PA had taken certain, unspecified
steps, but that they fell far short of the
Authoity's pledge of a war on terror.
European and other governments have voiced
serious reservations over the fence project,
which Palestinians argue has provided Israel a
pretext to confiscate Arab-owned land and
include large numbers of settlers in what could
constitute a future border between Israel and
an independent Palestine.
"We still have our differences with Britain on a
series of issues, including Arafat," a senior
Israeli official said after Blair hosted a
private dinner for Sharon, who is on a
three-day visit to London.
But the official described the event as "an
intimate meeting between friends." A Downing
Street spokesman called the talks "warm and
constructive" and said both leaders restated
their commitment to the road map.
Sharon assured Blair that Israel would free
Palestinian prisoners "without blood on their
hands."
However, Sharon declared, continuing pressure
must be applied on Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas and his security chief Mohammed
Dahlan, to dismantle the terrorist
infrastructure within Palestinian
Authority-controlled areas.
Sharon, calling Yasser Arafat the "main
obstacle" to a revived Middle East peace
process, failed to persuade Blair to cut
Britain's ties with the Palestinian leader.
There was no immediate word whether Blair had
pressed Sharon to step up the pace of
confidence-building measures mandated by the
peace plan, such as the dismantling of illegal
settler outposts in the West Bank.
"Sharon told Blair that it is now clear to
everyone that Arafat is the main obstacle to
progress in the (Israeli-Palestinian peace)
process," the official said.
"Arafat sabotages every opportunity to move
forward and any initiative or activity by
(Abbas)... he is undermining him."
Palestinians argue that it is Sharon who is
holding up peacemaking progress by rejecting
their calls for the release of Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli jails, who now number some
6,500.
Israel has said some 350 will go free and they
would not include prisoners with "blood on
their hands" or members of militant groups,
such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
But a senior Israeli signalled the tough terms
might be loosened after a meeting between
Sharon and Abbas next week to discuss ways to
bolster the peace plan that charts reciprocal
steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian
state by 2005.
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