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Sharon Rejects Peres' Proposal for Political Talks With Palestinians
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday rejected Foreign Minister Shimon Peres' proposal for opening political talks with the Palestinians to secure a ceasefire, Israel Radio reported.
Sharon and Peres, belonging to the right and left wing respectively in the national unity government, reportedly held a one-to-one meeting in the day.
During the meeting, Peres raised the idea that political talks could be defined as dialogues for ending the violence and not as diplomatic negotiations, said the report.
The proposal, reportedly drafted up by the Foreign Ministry's Center for Diplomatic Research, says that Israel should give a package of diplomatic initiatives for encouraging the Palestinians to stop the violence, which has lasted for more than 10 months and left over 670 people dead, most of them Palestinians.
It also suggests that Israel should agree to carry out a further round of troop redeployment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip according to the interim accords between the two sides, which had been postponed unilaterally by Israel due to the violence.
It also urges Israel to implement immediate measures to ease the sufferings of the Palestinian people, who were under the siege of roadblocks set up by the Israeli army in the past months.
However, Sharon, who insists on his election mantra "no negotiation under fire," rejected the proposal flatly.
The radio quoted a source in the Prime Minister's Office as saying that Sharon's position on the issue had not changed in any way and there would be no deviation from the procedure for a ceasefire set by the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Sharon in their talks last June.
The procedure, based on the recommendations of an international fact-finding committee, urged both sides to stop the violence, start a six-week cooling-off period after seven days of total quiet, then carry out confidence-building measures, and finally resume peace talks.
The security situation on the ground deteriorated in the past week as Israel stepped up its target killing operations in the West Bank and the Palestinians upgraded retaliation attacks.
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