OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 17 November 2003 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet met here yesterday to map out a strategy for expected talks with their new Palestinian opposite numbers as Sharon’s counterpart expressed confidence he could secure a new cease-fire.
“We will reach a cease-fire agreement and start negotiations (with Israel) to end the conflict and live as good neighbors,” Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei told the Washington Post ahead of the resumption of Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire among the armed factions such as Hamas.
Israel has said it will only regard Qorei’s government as a genuine partner in the peace process if it shows a willingness to dismantle the infrastructure of armed groups behind hundreds of deadly attacks during the three-year intifada.
A source close to Yasser Arafat said that both the Palestinian leader and Qorei were expected to meet today with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman who helped broker an earlier truce by the factions which collapsed in August after seven weeks.
The Palestinian National Security Council announced yesterday the creation of local committees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to ensure the “respect of law and order” which are expected to try and keep an eventual cease-fire intact.
Civic leaders such as mayors and governors would sit on the bodies, according to a statement published by the official Wafa news agency.
Qorei, who strongly condemned the killing of civilians, warned in his interview that levels of hatred toward Israel among Palestinians were at an all-time high.
Sharon and Qorei are expected to meet soon after the Israeli leader returns from a three-day visit to Italy next week although ministerial-level meetings could begin before then.
The meetings will see a new attempt to kick start the internationally backed road map for peace project which has ground to a halt amid the freeze in contacts and continuing violence on the ground.
The backers of an alternative peace plan, known as the Geneva Initiative, stepped up their publicity drive yesterday by mailing the document to millions of Israeli households, while the text was published in special supplements in Palestinian newspapers.
But Sharon has insisted the road map is the only way to secure peace with the Palestinians while Qorei told MPs last week, as he received official approval for his new government, that he was also committed to the road map.
Public radio reported yesterday that Sharon told his Cabinet — the first since Qorei’s government was approved — that he would address the issue of illegal settlement outposts after reports the United States had severely rapped its ally over West Bank settlement activity.
The Haaretz daily reported yesterday that Washington had relayed “sharp messages” to Israel about the settlements and a controversial West Bank separation barrier in phone calls between the US National Security Council’s Middle East director Elliot Abrams and Sharon’s chief of staff Dov Weisglass.
The barrier also came under fire from Pope John Paul II yesterday who said that the Middle East “does not need walls but bridges.”
