Posted on 03/08/2002 1:08:45 PM PST by KQQL
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to drop his demand for seven days of calm which he had set as condition for putting in motion a U.S.-brokered truce-to-talks deal, government sources said on Friday.
Sharon told Secretary of State Colin Powell of his change in position in a telephone call ahead of the return to the region next week of Washington's Middle East envoy, Anthony Zinni, the sources said.
"Sharon is willing to drop the condition of seven days of quiet that was agreed with the Americans a few months ago and is willing to discuss implementation of the Tenet document immediately," one source told Reuters.
Sharon had stuck to his insistence on a full week without Palestinian violence before he would be willing to begin implementing a cease-fire plan worked out last summer by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet.
The deal includes provisions for a cease-fire and a disengagement of forces, leading to a return to positions held before the Palestinian uprising broke out in September 2000.
A U.S. official in Washington said earlier on Friday the United States wanted immediate implementation of the plan even before Zinni begins his new mission aimed at ending more than 17 months of bloodshed.
Palestinians have charged Sharon with insisting on a week of calm to avoid moving ahead with the truce deal and to sabotage peace efforts.
In an interview with Israel's Channel Two television on Friday night, Sharon said Israel was "willing to enter into discussions on the Tenet plan" but that "if the terror continues we will operate with all our might."
Israel has been carrying out a series of strikes on Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza as part of what it says is its battle against "terror" to make up for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's failure to crack down on militants.
Palestinian officials said Sharon mighty be trying to renegotiate the Tenet agreement and that his comments amounted to admitting the futility of his previous position of not holding talks under fire.
"Sharon's statements are an admission of failure of his security policies and of the collapse of all his promises to his people to force the Palestinians to kneel," said Mohammad Dahlan, Palestinian Preventive Security chief in the Gaza Strip.
"We refuse to renegotiate Tenet. The plan is clear and includes duties each side has to respect." At least 1,006 Palestinians and 319 Israelis have now been killed since the Palestinian uprising began.
Sharon is all talk no action....
Translation: WE AREN'T GOING TO STOP THE SUICIDE BOMBINGS AND IT'S NOT FAIR TO TRY AND STOP US.
You all deserve a war that goes on two hundred years, given how wimply you are about dealing with this problem.
You are pathetic.
I am afraid you are right!
For example, they can (and have) gone into the camps, cleaned them up, and then left. This scenario can be repeated over and over within the framework of the Tenent plan, as long as the troops move in and out in lightening operations to clean up the terrorists and destroy weapons caches.
Actually he was on the right track. The cause of him caving in is because of us pressing him (they said on NBC).
He can be magnanimous for himself not with the lives of Israelis.
Having Sharon cave in to pressure shows the Arabs that killing Israelis is an effective tactic with little cost.
Ron
INDEED!
Is it possible that Sharon has seen the chain reaction - not unlike a nuclear chain reaction - the killing of one terrorist creates TWO more?
Peace vs extermination . . . Which will cost more?
Yes. My thoughts on that are HERE
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