PM (Sharon) crafting diplomatic plan

Jerusalem Post ^ | 7/1/02 | Gil Hoffman

[areafiftyone]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon revealed yesterday that he is working with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on a new diplomatic initiative.

He told the Likud Knesset faction the initiative would start with a series of measures to ease the burden on the Palestinian population, as US President George W. Bush requested in his Middle East speech last week. Sharon said the moves would be coordinated with Bush, but was purposely vague on the details.

"It's important for the initiative to be in our hands," Sharon said. "The time has not yet come to detail the steps that we are taking, but I can say the efforts are already under way in the thinking process about what path to take to advance."

Sharon said Bush was right when he said that terror, violence, and incitement must end and deep Palestinian reforms must begin before actual negotiations can begin. But he said his government would not sit idle while waiting for the Palestinians to do their part.

"Whoever thinks that after [Bush's] speech we will rest on our laurels is wrong," Sharon said. "We want to be the ones who start things off diplomatically, and a series of meetings with the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry have started to that effect."

Spokesmen for both Peres and Ben-Eliezer said they had no idea what Sharon was referring to.

The only details about the initiative Sharon would elaborate on related to assisting the Palestinians' financially. He said he told Bush stories of poor Palestinian laborers, whose meager wages in Israel are taxed 140 percent by PA security forces upon their return to the Gaza Strip.

"I gave clear orders last week how to ease the situation of Palestinian citizens uninvolved with terror," Sharon said. "The Palestinian population is suffering from PA corruption. We are talking to contributing countries and relief agencies to help out economically, and we will do our part by limiting the extent of our closures of Palestinian towns."

In another gesture to Bush, Sharon announced for the first time that he would prevent new outposts from being built in Judea and Samaria.

"I don't think anyone needs to explain to me the need for Jewish settlement," Sharon told the Likud faction. "The residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are the Jewish pioneers of 2000. However, we must remember that Israel is a law-abiding country. If in a certain place, people break the law, we have to deal with it."

Speaking to reporters at Beit Hanassi following an early morning meeting in which he updated President Moshe Katsav on the government's political, security, and economic activities, Sharon was asked about his refusal to allow Peres to meet with the Palestinian leadership. He replied that the media had been misinformed.

Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns travels to London today for consultative meetings on the Middle East with the other members of the so-called "Madrid Quartet" the EU, Russia, and the UN.

Burns's quartet counterparts are Andrei Vdovin of Russia, Miguel Moratinos of the EU, and Terje Roed-Larsen, representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"They're going to review steps to support and implement the president's vision for progress on security, institution building and reform, economic reconstruction, and resumption of an Israeli-Palestinian political dialogue," said US spokesman Richard Boucher.

Boucher conceded that some of the other participants do not agree with the US on ostracizing Arafat, but said they do agree on other aspects of the new US approach.

"What people do agree upon is the need to move toward this vision of a Palestinian state. What they do agree upon is that both sides have obligations. What they do agree upon is the need for reform, and support for reform in the Palestinian community is an essential part of that," he said.

British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien will meet in Jerusalem today with Peres, and in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Yesterday, O'Brien held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who gave him a message for Arafat.

Mubarak said yesterday he intends to dispatch emissaries to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in a new effort to contain the dangerous situation in the region.

"I'll dispatch a representative to Israel and another to the Palestinian Authority in the near future, because the situation cannot continue this way, and I fear future complications may lead to chaos in the region," Mubarak told reporters in Cairo.

Egyptian sources said Mubarak would send his intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, to Israel and his political adviser, Osama el-Baz, to the PA within two days.

Janine Zacharia, Greer Fay Cashman, and news agencies contributed to this report.