Sharon Rejects Palestinian Proposal for Moratorium on Retaliations: Radio

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 04, 2002

Sharon Rejects Palestinian Proposal for Moratorium on Retaliations: Radio

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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon turned down a Palestinian proposal that Israel hold a 10-daymoratorium on retaliations for terror attacks to enable the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to act against militants, Israel Radio reported Monday.

The report said that the proposal was put forward by one of the three senior Palestinian officials who had a meeting with Sharon last Wednesday, put forward a proposal for quelling the 16-month violence, saying that "Israel will not react for a period of 10 days to (Palestinian) attacks, in order to allow the Palestinian (National) Authority to go into action to prevent terror."

Sharon was meeting with Speaker of Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Abu Mazen and Mohammed Rashid, the top financial advisor to Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Sharon rejected the proposal out of hand, the radio said, addingthat senior Egyptian security official Omar Suleiman had made a similar proposal to an unnamed senior Israeli official in recent days, which was likewise rejected.

During the meeting, Sharon presented the Palestinian officials with his proposals for a long-term interim settlement. During this period, according to Sharon, the sides would evaluate their relations in preparation for discussions on a permanent resolution to the conflict.

Sharon suggests first achieving a cease-fire, which would not bebound by a time schedule, but rather by a "table of expectation" that would impose tasks on both sides.

Abu Mazen voiced opposition to any interim agreement that was not part of a permanent settlement and demanded that the principlesof such a final arrangement be formulated first. However, statements made by the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Abu Ala, seemed to suggest that he did not rule out the idea of an interim agreement.

After the meeting, Sharon and the Palestinian officials agreed to institutionalize their talks and conduct such discussions once every two or three weeks.

Palestinian officials are joking that since Israeli declared thePNA a terror entity and Arafat irrelevant, the Israelis have been competing among themselves over the number of fronts on which they are maintaining ties with the PNA - Sharon has Rashid; Peres has Abu Ala and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer has Gaza securitychief Mohammed Dahlan, Israeli daily Ha'aretz said Monday.

The political establishment is now waiting to see the outcome ofSharon's trip to the United States which is scheduled for Wednesdayand his meetings Thursday with U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

On his return from the United States, Sharon is expected to meetwith Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's senior advisor, Osama Al Baz.

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