Jerusalem - In an exchange that sounded constructive but actually underlined the gulf between them, Israel's new Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, said yesterday that he would meet and negotiate with the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, when quiet is restored to the area, David Horovitz reports.
Mr Arafat sent him a congratulatory letter expressing the desire to resume peace negotiations at the point they left off under Mr Sharon's predecessor, Mr Ehud Barak. Though positively phrased, the respective messages amount to a recipe for deadlock.
Mr Sharon, speaking at a relaxed ceremony in the Prime Minister's office at which Mr Barak formally made way for his successor, emphasised that, while he was prepared to negotiate with Mr Arafat, whom he has previously characterised as a "murderer" and "war criminal", he would do so only at a time of "quiet and security". In effect, Mr Sharon is demanding that Mr Arafat call publicly and unequivocally to the Palestinians to halt all attacks on Israel.
Mr Arafat, in his letter, accompanied his message of congratulation with the demand that talks resume on the basis of proposals presented by Mr Barak's ministers during talks last January in Taba, Egypt, when the sides were making an abortive eleventh-hour bid to seal a pre-election peace accord. Mr Barak has stressed that the Taba proposals were never signed and are now "null and void".