Haaretz
Shvat 18, 5765
Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, voicing a rare burst of optimism Thursday over prospects for
diplomatic progress, declared that conditions were now ripe for a
"historic breakthrough" between Israel and the Palestinians.
Sharon
spoke as the Palestinian Authority issued a weapons ban to curtail the
widespread bearing of arms in the Palestinian population. The PA also
named as its new over-all security chief Nasser Yusef, a tough official
who had in the past led crackdowns on militants in the territories.
Over the past two days, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Finance
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed doubts over the credibility of PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' campaign to forge a cease-fire and pave a return
to the negotiating table.
But in a Tel Aviv speech Thursday
evening, Sharon welcomed the recent Palestinian moves.
"I believe
that the conditions are now ripe to allow us and the Palestinians to reach
a historic breakthrough in the relations between us," Sharon
said.
"If the Palestinians act in a comprehensive fashion to fight
terror, violence and incitement," Sharon said, "we can move forward to the
process of implementing the 'road map,' and then we can coordinate various
activities with them regarding the disengagement plan."
Peres:
Diplomatic developments exceeding expectations
Vice Premier
Shimon Peres said Thursday he expected Sharon would renew talks with
Palestinian leaders in a matter of "days, not weeks."
Arriving at
the World Economic Forum, Peres said the development toward peacemaking in
recent days "exceeds our expectations."
"I think we can move faster
than we thought earlier - faster and better if nothing wrong will occur."
Peres said it was important that progress be made in the political arena,
as well as in issues such as security, in keeping with progress made on
the economic front.
Former Palestinian security chief Mohammed
Dahlan said Thursday that Israel had given a measure of agreement to
withdraw forces from West Bank cities and give Palestinians policing
rights in those areas. "Israel has agreed in principle to renew the
understandings that were reached when Abbas was prime minister," in July
2003, Dahlan said.
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said he
proposed a mutual cease-fire declaration in his meeting Wednesday with
Sharon aide Dov Weisglass.
"We are willing to have a cease-fire,
and we have informed the Israelis of this and we are waiting for an answer
from them as soon as possible," Abbas told reporters Thursday, before
leaving the West Bank for visits to Jordan, Egypt, Switzerland, Russia and
Turkey.
"They [the Israelis] did not reject this. They will give us
the final answer next week," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Shalom
said of the Abbas-brokered truce, "Whoever thinks a halt is the right
thing, is mistaken. A cease-fire is a ticking bomb which will blow up in
our faces."
According to Shalom, if militants use a cease-fire to
rebuild their infrastructure, at some point in the future "they can carry
out one terrorist attack or a series of terror attacks, which will bring
down this whole process and send it to hell."