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Palestinians Pessimistic over Peace with Israel Under Sharon
A senior Palestinian official said on Saturday that he was pessimistic over the prospect of reaching peace with Israel under its right-wing prime minister-elect, Ariel Sharon.
"No single evidence suggests that the (incoming Israeli) government (under Sharon) will be a government of peace," Palestinian Minister of Local Government Saeb Erekat said in an interview with the Cairo-based Voice of Arab radio from the Gaza Strip.
Erekat, also a senior negotiator in peace talks with Israel, called on the world community to press the Jewish state to stop aggressions against the Palestinians.
"The shortest way to reach peace and stability in the Middle East is ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories," he said.
He denied reports that the Palestinians and Israelis have resumed talks on security coordination, saying that politics and security cannot be separated.
Sharon, the leader of Israel's hardline Likud party, defeated outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak in Israel's prime ministerial election on February 6. He has said that Israel will not resume peace talks with the Palestinians before violence is contained in the Palestinian territories.
He has also said that his new government would not honor understandings and accords reached between Barak's government and the Palestinians.
The Palestinians, however, insisted that the peace talks be restarted from where they left off.
The clashes between Israeli troops and the Palestinians, which have rocked the region for five months, have so far left more than 420 people dead, most of them Palestinians.
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