The leader of the Israeli Likud Party, Mr Ariel Sharon has said he will engage in peace negotiations with the Palestinians if he is elected prime minister next month but that he will offer less than outgoing premier Mr Ehud Barak. Mr Sharon holds a substantial lead in the election according to opinion polls.
"The Oslo accords are dead. Period," Mr Sharon said in an interview with the Orthodox Jewish weekly Kfar Habad - the Oslo accords, signed in 1993, are the basis of the current peace process.
"The basis of those accords was that all disputes must be settled at the negotiating table, not by violence," said Mr Sharon.
"As long as there is violence, it means very clearly that the Oslo accords no longer exist," said Mr Sharon.
His comments were confirmed by Mr Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States who heads Likud's foreign policy department: "As things stand now, the two sides may just not be ready for a final agreement," he said.
But Mr Shoval said Likud is a party capable of negotiating peace, saying it had conducted "most of" Israel's negotiations with the Palestinians.
"A Sharon government will aim at reaching long-term, interim agreements with some aspect of permanency", Mr Shoval said.
He gave no further details, saying it would be "irresponsible" for Likud to reveal its strategy. However, he indicated that negotiations would resume, "after a necessary recess," with the new US administration led by President-elect George W.Bush.
Mr Shoval added that he hoped Bush would not "rush into picking things up where Clinton left them", and that he would rather "reassess the peace process as a whole".
Mr Sharon has said he would be prepared to give up only 45 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians, who are now estimated to fully or partially control 40 percent. He has also indicated there would be no division of Jerusalem.
AFP