Sharon Pledges to Remove Settler Outposts

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Sharon Pledges to Remove Settler Outposts

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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged Monday to remove "illegal" settler outposts in the West Bank to meet a demand made in a U.S.-backed peace plan that also calls for a freeze on all settlement activity.

Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas are due to discuss the so-called peace road map in separate meetings with President Bush in Washington next week.

In a statement to the Israeli parliament, which met during summer recess to discuss pressing issues, Sharon acknowledged intense international pressure to dismantle the sparsely inhabited hilltop outposts.

Parliament voted 47 to 27 with one abstention to back Sharon's policy statement, which gave no time frame for the removal of what settlement monitoring groups say are more than 60 illegal outposts.

Only a handful of the hilltop settlements, usually only a few temporary structures, have been dismantled since the U.S.-led Aqaba summit and peace groups say those removed have already been replaced.

Sharon's promise, which failed to address the road map's call for a halt to settlement construction, failed to impress Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan al-Khatib.

The road map calls on Israel to dismantle immediately settler outposts set up since Sharon took office in March 2001 and to freeze all settlement activity.

Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from more West Bank cities and free some 6,000 prisoners, while Israel seeks a Palestinian crackdown on militants behind attacks that have killed scores of Israelis since the start of the 33-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence.

Abbas wants to avoid direct confrontation with militant groups for fear it could cause a Palestinian civil war.

Source: Agencies

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