Sharon confident of winning third term

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon today spoke confidently of winning a third term, and said he planned to use his next tenure “to make every effort to advance the peace process”.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Sharon also said military options against Iran’s nuclear program existed, but that he was sure diplomacy was the first line of defence.

Last week, the prime minister quit his hard-line Likud Party to set up a new camp that would give him a free hand in peacemaking. Polls consistently have shown his new list coming out on top in March 28 elections, and able to hook up with the dovish Labour to form a stable coalition with a peacemaking agenda.

“I will win these elections,” Sharon predicted.

The Israeli elections, and January 25 parliamentary elections for the Palestinian legislature, have put peacemaking on hold. But Sharon, offering few details, said his next term would be devoted to building on the momentum set in motion by his Gaza Strip pullout this summer.

“I definitely plan to make every effort to advance the peace process,” Sharon said, repeating his commitment to the US-backed “road map” peace plan, which envisions a cessation of violence and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

“There is no change in anything in anything we’ve committed to, which is spelled out in the road map,” he said.

Sharon said there would be no further unilateral withdrawals, like the Gaza pullout. And he reasserted his determination that major West Bank settlement blocs remain under Israeli control.

“There is no possibility that the settlement blocs won’t continue to exist under Israeli control with territorial contiguity with Israel,” the prime minister said. “There are areas where it is vital for Israel to have people settle.”

Negotiations will be encumbered if Hamas militants, who want Israel destroyed, make a strong showing in their first legislative race, as expected.

Sharon said Israel would not negotiate with Hamas. “We do not see them as any type of partner in contacts with Israel,” he said.

And, repeating his opposition to the group’s participation in the elections, Sharon said Israel would arrest Hamas candidates if they tried to go through Israeli military roadblocks.

“If a Hamas member wants to move from place to place, from one checkpoint to another, he will be immediately arrested,” Sharon said.

Israel wants Hamas to disarm and rescind its charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction and the establishment of an Islamic state in its stead.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sharon should not interfere in Palestinian affairs, and that he was trying to impose a deal on the Palestinians. “I think he wants to make peace with himself and his voters,” Erekat said.

Although Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas initiated Hamas’ involvement in the elections, in a bid to moderate the armed group, Sharon said Hamas’ participation “wouldn’t influence our relations with the Palestinian Authority at all".

Co-operation between Israel and the Palestinians increased in recent weeks after the two sides reached an agreement allowing the Palestinians to open the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border last week.

Israel was concerned that militants or arms would flow into Gaza through Rafah, but agreed to the border opening after the Palestinians accepted the presence of European monitors and installed security cameras that allowed Israel to monitor the crossing live.

Israel has complained in recent days that it has received delayed information, and Sharon threatened today that if Israel doesn’t receive real-time information, then it would expel Gaza and the West Bank from a customs agreement.

Removing Gaza from the customs union – and in effect severing its economic ties with the Palestinians in the West Bank – would further devastate the already shattered Gaza economy.

“If it turns out that we don’t have real-time monitoring of who is coming in, Israel has one tool -- perhaps the most effective and the most painful – that the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel ... will become (international) border crossings,” and the customs arrangement will be rescinded, Sharon said.

The World Bank’s regional representative, Nigel Roberts, said the Rafah issue is a security concern and should not be linked to the customs agreement. “The whole agreement underpinning the understanding on Rafah is that Gaza would remain part of the customs envelope,” he said.

Erekat said he was puzzled Israel was resorting to public threats. He said the Palestinians are trying to resolve what he described as a technical issue, with the help of European monitors.

The Iranian nuclear program remains a top concern in Israel because of Tehran’s antipathy toward the Jewish state. Sharon said he was confident all diplomatic efforts would be exhausted before military action is taken – but that military capabilities exist.

Asked if any country is considering a strike against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, Sharon replied, “I am sure that before anyone goes to take such steps, all attempts will be made to pressure Iran to stop all this activity.”

But the ability to carry out a military strike “of course exists,” he said.

Although Israel is preparing for the possibility that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, it won’t lead the fight against the Islamic state’s nuclear ambitions, Sharon said.