Sharon wants peace!

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, May 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will head negotiations with the Palestinians himself and may resume contacts with newly-appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas shortly, Israeli media said Sunday, May 4.

Sharon told his ministers at a weekly cabinet meeting of his intention to personally head negotiations which are set to resume with a new U.S.-led peace initiative, Israeli public radio said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The radio added that a meeting was imminent between the right-wing Sharon and Abbas, whom Israel sees as a pragmatic moderate ready to demilitarize the Palestinian Intifada.

The radio, quoting a senior official, said the meeting should take place after Israel's Independence Day celebrations Wednesday.

Abbas' new security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, has already initiated contacts to enable the two leaders to meet, Palestinian sources said.

Sharon met Sunday with his Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at the weekly cabinet meeting to discuss security issues with the Palestinians.

The move toward resuming talks, which broke down some 18 months ago amid rising violence, came as U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns arrived in Israel to meet officials from both Israel and the Palestinian administration ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Powell is touring the region for a new peace push after the Iraq invasion.

Burns was to meet first with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom before going on to talks with Sharon and Mofaz, officials said.

He is expected in Ramallah Monday to meet key Palestinian figures, but will "definitely not meet" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom Israel and Washington want sidelined in favor of Abbas, a U.S. official told AFP.

As Powell toured the region to push for a new vision of a more peaceful Middle East after the U.S. ouster of Saddam Hussein and occupation of Iraq, Israel and the Palestinians geared for the impending implementation of a new peace initiative known as the "roadmap”.

Talk of peace goes on, babies lose their lives!

Shalom reportedly told Sharon and other Israeli ministers that Abbas did not want to implement the internationally-drafted roadmap until after he had more firmly established his grip on power.

Burns will also discuss the roadmap, a step-by-step plan to ending the 31-month conflict and creating a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.

Since coming to office in March 2001, Sharon has met Abbas several times in secret. Before being appointed Premier, Abbas was the official negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Burns was also set to brief the Israelis on the results of Powell's meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he urged to crack down on the leadership of Palestinian resistance groups based in Damascus, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Powell, who has piled pressure on Syria during the Iraq invasion for allegedly harboring fleeing Iraqi officials, said Assad had already started to move on the issue, although Israel remained doubtful about Assad's true intentions.

"Israel has been saying for a long time that Syria has been hosting terrorist organizations. It's a good step by the United States to try to put an end to this. The future will tell but I have my doubts," said one foreign ministry official.

The top-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot was more skeptical in its editorial.

"The chances of a resumption of negotiations between Israel and Syria are minimal. There's not even a question of it happening at the moment," said a senior official quoted by the paper.

Yediot quoted a senior unnamed official as saying that "there is no basic change in the position of the Syrian President, although certain signs indicate he has understood the gravity of the U.S. warnings."