Sharon praises international stand against Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has demanded Palestinian action against terror, singled out Syria and Iran as its sponsors and – referring to recent UN actions – said the international community is standing up to “extremist countries” for the first time.

Sharon’s speech opened what is expected to be a turbulent winter term in parliament, one his weakened government may not survive.

His Likud Party remains badly split after his pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank, and unless he can restore unity against the odds, a snap election could be inevitable.

Low-level violence continued today, a day after an informal truce was apparently scuttled by an Israeli raid in the West Bank that killed three Palestinian militants.

After sundown, Palestinians fired a rocket from Gaza toward Israel and Israel responded with artillery fire, witnesses said.

There were no reports of casualties.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces conducted sweeps of Islamic Jihad concentrations in three villages, residents said.

Despite the exchange, an unwritten truce still seemed possble. Islamic Jihad, while threatening retribution for yesterday’s raid in the West Bank, said if Israel stops its attacks, the militants will stop firing rockets.

In a website statement today, the Palestinian Authority said an agreement has been reached to stop the violence, but it also quoted Islamic Jihad leader Khaled el-Batesh as reserving the right to retaliate for Israel’s “maniac acts”.

Israeli officials have said they will not make a deal with the militants, but if their attacks stop, Israel would halt its retaliation.

This week’s three-day Muslim observance of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, could also be a factor. Violence has usually diminished during main Muslim feasts.

Sharon was uncompromising in his speech, demanding that the Palestinians move against militants as part of the US-backed “road map” peace plan.

“There is no way around the demand on the Palestinians to carry out their obligation to dismantle the terror groups,” he said.

Palestinians complain that Israel has not done its part under the plan, including removal of unauthorised West Bank outposts and halting settlement construction.

Sharon said Israel “will continue to defend itself and hit the perpetrators of terrorism,” referring to a suicide bombing last week that killed five Israelis. “We have no choice.”

Sharon grouped Iran, Syria and Palestinian militants together as hostile elements that “don’t need reasons or excuses (to attack Israel) – just an opportunity”.

“The call of the president of Iran saying he wants to wipe out Israel from the map expresses what many in the region want but are afraid to say aloud,” Sharon told legislators.

“Their murderous intentions are expressed daily in terror attacks like the ones we saw in the past week,” he said.

“The dispatchers of terrorists from Iran and Damascus, from Gaza and (West Bank towns of) Jenin, from Tulkarem and from Qabatiyeh, from Hebron and Bethlehem, do not need reasons or excuses, only an opportunity.”

Sharon said that for the first time in years, “the United Nations is standing against extremist countries like Iran and Syria that threaten the region.”

The UN Security Council demanded today that Syria cooperate with an inquiry into the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik Hariri and might take on the issue of the Iranian nuclear programme.

Sharon also said that as a result of its pull-out from Gaza, Israel is better accepted now on the international stage than before.

But Sharon faces problems are at home. The destruction of all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank represented a policy shift for Sharon, a decades-long backer and builder of settlements.

He was forced to reshuffle his centre-right government, ignoring heavy party criticism, to pull it off.

Now his Likud opponents are determined to bring down his government.

Together with the parliamentary opposition, they forced him to delay a routine move of naming two new ministers to his Cabinet on Monday for lack of a simple majority.

Analysts say if he fails again next week, he might advance general elections, set now for November 2006.

Haim Ramon of the moderate Labour Party, which joined Sharon’s Cabinet to rescue the Gaza pull-out, believes the current government has reached the end of its road.

“The fact that the ruling party is falling apart and is not functioning anymore means that the government cannot function and that means that we have to go to early elections,” he said.