MIDDLE EAST: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continued his predilection for issuing substantive-sounding declarations that are always frustratingly short on detail, when he told a news conference yesterday that Israel would have to relinquish parts of the West Bank and Gaza if it ever hoped to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians.
Asked about the fate of the isolated Gaza settlement of Netzarim, which has become something of a litmus test of Mr Sharon's readiness to dismantle settlements, the prime minister replied: "It is clear that in the future we will not be in all the places we are now." Mr Sharon had once equated Netzarim's importance to Israel's security with that of Tel Aviv.
But Mr Sharon's remarks carried a caveat for the Palestinians. "You do not have unlimited time. There is a limit to our patience," he said, in reference to his recent statement that he would take unilateral steps in the West Bank and Gaza if there was no progress in talks with the new Palestinian government of Prime Minister Ahmed Korei.
Aides to the Israeli leader, who is under growing international and domestic pressure to emerge from what some observers have called his diplomatic "hibernation," suggested earlier this week that Mr Sharon might be ready to dismantle some isolated settlements. "Maybe there is no point in waiting for another Palestinian government and another Palestinian government, but to take unilateral steps," the prime minister said yesterday in Tel Aviv.
While Mr Sharon has been in office for almost three years, he is yet to provide more than vague contours of his blueprint for the territories. With the barrier Israel is erecting in the West Bank jutting ever-further into Palestinian territory, however, it is becoming increasingly evident that, at most, he is ready to grant the Palestinians only a truncated state with limited territorial contiguity. Some observers predict Mr Sharon would be willing to relinquish some 50 per cent of the West Bank, but he has never confirmed this figure.
Despite leaks about removing settlements, Mr Sharon said yesterday he would not remove all of the dozens of illegal West Bank settlement outposts set up in recent years and which the road map peace plan requires he dismantle. While some outposts would be removed, he said others had "supreme security value" and would "remain". Palestinian leaders criticised Mr Sharon's comments on the outposts as a blatant violation of the road map. Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath described the Israeli leader's contention that his patience was running thin as "an unprecedented, arrogant statement. It is rude and it lacks any vision. He should declare that he is committed to the road map and implement all the Israeli commitments that are in this map."
Nevertheless, it was announced yesterday that a senior aide to Mr Sharon would meet a senior Palestinian early next week in an attempt to pave the way for a meeting between Mr Sharon and Mr Korei.
Top Israeli and Palestinian officials, meanwhile, met in London yesterday at the invitation of the British government, for a two-day conference on implementation of the road map. While the talks are not official peace negotiations, they have drawn interest because the participants include Mr Sharon's son Omri, who is a member of parliament and has performed diplomatic missions for his father in the past, and Mr Jibril Rajoub, the national security adviser to President Yasser Arafat.