Sharon: Palestinians must have own state

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today held out the prospect of a historic breakthrough in the Middle East peace process by telling Palestinians: “We have no desire to rule over you and control your affairs.”

Speaking at an annual academic conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Sharon said 2005 was a year of “great opportunity”.

Sharon urged Israel not to miss the current opportunity for peace.

“We have no desire to rule over you and control your affairs,” he said, addressing the Palestinians, endorsing their desire for an independent state while demanding that they stop attacks against Israel.

He said a key element is implementation of his plan to pull Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip and a part of the West Bank.

“To do this, we have to take the initiative.”

Sharon said that Israel’s pullout from Gaza would ease demographic pressures on the country.

About 8,200 Israeli settlers live among more than a million Palestinians in Gaza.

“It is clear that in a permanent peace accord, we will not be in Gaza,” he said.

Sharon urged Palestinians to “eliminate terrorism” as a condition for progress toward a peace settlement with Gaza.

Sharon repeated his pledge to co-operate with the Palestinians to allow free elections on January 9 to replace Yasser Arafat.

Israel would be prepared to co-ordinate its pullout from Gaza with a Palestinian leadership that would take responsibility.

The Israeli leader said the Palestinians should have their own state, because to continue Israeli control over Palestinian areas would mean “one people maintaining control of another people” – an untenable situation.

Sharon praised Egyptian co-operation and a recent improvement in relations.

He said that if Egypt works to prevent Palestinian arms smuggling through tunnels under the border, Israel would withdraw from the “Philidelphi Route”, the wide border road Israel patrols there.