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Putin gave a cold shoulder to Sharon’s request on blacklisting Lebanese and Palestinian groups (AFP)
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MOSCOW,
November 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Russia rebuffed
Tuesday, November 4, an appeal by visiting Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon to scrap its efforts to turn the internationally-endorsed
roadmap blueprint into a binding U.N. resolution or brand Palestinian
and Lebanese resistance groups as terrorist.
Israeli
officials said Sharon met only cautious understanding but no
compliance during talks of Russian officials including a three-hour
meeting with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin Monday, November
3.
Hawkish
Sharon asked Putin to drop the resolution now that the roadmap was in
doubt amid spiraling violence, Israeli officials were quoted by Agence
France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
The
blueprint envisages a number of reciprocal steps by the Palestinians
and Israelis leading to an independent and sovereign Palestinian state
by 2005.
"We
very clearly explained that Israel is opposed to the Russian
proposal," an Israeli official said after Sharon-Putin talks.
"It
is my impression that the Russians understand our position
better," he added.
However,
there was no official confirmation from Moscow that Putin's position
had changed, with the Kremlin press office refusing to comment on the
Israeli official’s statement when contacted by telephone.
Russian
officials stressed there was also little heed from Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov, one of the Russian initiators of the proposed U.N.
resolution, who met Sharon on Tuesday.
"(Sharon)
had a very frank discussion," with the Russian foreign minister,
a senior Israeli official said.
Russia
presented the resolution on the roadmap to the U.N. Thursday, sparking
an angry response from Israeli officials.
The
Israelis prefer the peace plan to be enforced in the violence-torn
region by the U.S., and that approval from the U.N. - where Arab
states have a strong voice - may force Tel Aviv into unfair
commitments.
But
observers said the resolution could put more legal spin on demands for
Israel to halt building more settlements and resuming the construction
of the separation wall which snakes through Palestinian territories,
both largely seen by the world community and the U.N. as illegal
.
The
roadmap, brokered by the U.S., U.N., E.U. and Russia, calls on Israel
to stop such practices, and on Palestinians to stop attacks against
Israeli targets to create an atmosphere conducive for ending the
long-standing conflict.
No
Comment
Sharon
also called on the Russian leader to add the Lebanese resistance group
Hezbollah and Palestinian movements to Russia’s list of
"terrorist" organizations.
However,
Putin and his Kremlin aides refused to offer an immediate response,
sticking to a line that only "terror" organizations
operating in Russia will be recognized as such by Moscow.
"But
Ivanov told Sharon he will consider our stand, but he did not say that
Russia was convinced," said an Israeli official.
Hezbollah
is Lebanon’s main resistance group which played a pivotal role in
booting out the Israeli occupation army from most of southern Lebanon
in a messy one-sided withdrawal in May 2000.
Israel
still occupies Lebanon’s strategic Shebaa Farms and neighboring
Syria’s Golan Heights.
This
came one day after an E.U. poll unveiled
that majority of the Europeans believe Israel poses the biggest threat
to world peace, just ahead of North Korea, Iran and the U.S.
Press
reports said the results appear to mark widespread
disapproval in Europe of the tactics employed by
Sharon’s government during the Palestinian Intifada.
