Sharon ready to take ‘painful steps’ for peace

PRIME Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday Israel is prepared to make “painful compromises for peace”, and has begun co-ordination with Palestinians on Israel’s planned pull-out from the Gaza Strip.

However, violence could undermine the tentative steps being taken towards peace. As Mr Sharon spoke, Palestinian security officials reported Israeli troops shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian stone thrower.

Addressing the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, Mr Sharon said last week’s summit showed there can be progress toward peace if violence is ended.

At the summit a week ago, Mr Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared a truce to end more than four years of bloodshed. Alongside measures to cement the truce, Mr Sharon is also dealing with increasingly-harsh opposition to his plan to dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank in the summer. Extremists have sent death threats to some Israeli cabinet ministers.

“We needed to take painful steps” toward peace, Mr Sharon said, referring to his pullout plan, but he hoped to prevent a rift among Israelis. He said that Israel is prepared to make “painful compromises for peace, but will not make compromises with terror.”

Asked about the assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, he said: “Israel is a peace-seeking country that strives to achieve peace with all Arab countries, including Syria.”

He charged that Palestinian terror groups are headquartered in Syria, and in co-operation with Iran, directs Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

“Syria must allow the Lebanese army to deploy its forces along the border with Israel,” he said, and remove its forces from Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559. He said it was “unnecessary to respond” to accusations about Israeli complicity in the assassination. He said Lebanon is under full Syrian control.

Meanwhile, Israel and the Palestinians were locked in a dispute over a withdrawal from the West Bank town of Jericho, with the Israeli military baulking at Palestinian demands it remove all checkpoints in the area and also pull troops out of an adjacent village.

The negotiations were shrouded in confusion after Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat initially said agreement had been reached. However, Mr Erekat later said while Israel has accepted the idea of withdrawing from areas surrounding West Bank towns, and not only the urban centres, it had not approved specific demands regarding Jericho.

The eventual agreement on Jericho could set an important precedent for planned Israeli pull-backs from four more West Bank towns. Removing troops from the surrounding areas is key, as it would signal a willingness by Israel to dismantle some of the army’s much-loathed checkpoints.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was upbeat, saying “the problem is on the way to a solution”. Mr Abbas reiterated that Israel would have to pull out of the areas surrounding Jericho, not only the town itself.

Mr Abbas also said he planned to complete the formation of a new cabinet by today.