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Sharon Demands "Natural Growth"
of Settlements
JERUSALEM, June 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli hardline Premier Ariel Sharon said Wednesday he did not see eye-to-eye with U.S. President George W. Bush on freezing Israeli colony-settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories.
Sharon also acknowledged a split with Washington over Middle East policy, as well as casting doubts on the chances of success for the latest U.S. mission to the region.
"On the settlement question, the American position is different from ours. That's legitimate and does no harm to our relations. On the contrary, things have to be said clearly and put out on the table," he told Israeli army radio, the French news wire AFP reported.
Sharon, who previously served as an infrastructure minister responsible for expanding the Israeli colony-settlement system, insisted his coalition government was committed to freezing settlement construction, one of the key confidence-building measures called for under the Mitchell plan to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
"The national unity government has committed itself not to create new colony-settlements and not to confiscate new land. There will be a halt to construction, but not in areas already built-up, because we must meet the needs of the people," he said.
Sharon said "natural growth" should be allowed in settlements on occupied land, which are illegal under international law and which Palestinians view as an obstacle to peace, BBC online reported.
The settlements, or colonial housing projects on occupied Palestinian land-- land Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war --- house 200,000 Jews in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and are one of the top Palestinian grievances.
Israel's army radio reported that Bush asked Israel for an immediate and total halt to colony-settlement construction.
He also asked Sharon to press ahead with peace moves, saying "the level of violence has gotten down to the point where there can be some progress
Sharon and Bush met in the White House Tuesday for the second time in the past three months as Washington tries to hold together a fragile two-week-old ceasefire deal engineered by CIA Director George Tenet.
This comes ahead of a new diplomatic mission by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region, which the Israeli leader pronounced unlikely to "succeed in achieving a result."
For his part, leading Palestinian peace negotiator, Saeb Erakat, said Palestinians will ask Powell to establish a calendar for implementing the Mitchell report when he meets them during his tour to the middle east.
"We have only one demand to submit to Powell, that is to establish a calendar defining the stages in the application of the (Mitchell) report," Erakat said on the efforts to end nine months of regional violence, news agencies reported.
Erakat warned against Sharon's efforts to define the terms of the Mitchell report, which aims to bring the two parties back to the negotiating table.
"Sharon does not have the right to dictate to us his calendar nor his conditions," Erakat said.
Sharon in Washington insisted on a "total cessation of violence" for 10 days before any consideration can be given to the next phase.
Both sides have signed on to a process devised by an international commission headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell to try to break the cycle of violence and return to the political process.
The Mitchell report calls for a ceasefire - currently in its 11th day - a cooling-off period, confidence building measures and a resumption of peace talks.
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