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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (72535)	2/9/2003 1:47:55 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

Looks like labor is making sure that Sharon can't make a deal. Not that the wants to at this moment, anyway. Labor leadership is due for a change shortly, I expect. I guess the thing stopping it is that the rank and file of the membership is down to the hare core left. [The New York Times] February 9, 2003 Israel Offers Palestinians a Gradual Cease-Fire Plan By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 12:38 p.m. ET JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel has offered the Palestinians a gradual cease-fire, a senior government official said Sunday, while suggesting that efforts to remove Yasser Arafat as Palestinian leader will intensify after the U.S.-Iraq conflict is resolved. Also Sunday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was awarded the task of forming a coalition, a formality that starts the clock ticking. Sharon has six weeks to form a government and -- if the moderate Labor Party doesn't budge on its refusal to join with Sharon's Likud -- the re-elected prime minister may have to rely on extreme right-wing and religious parties for a majority. Such a coalition would make concessions to the Palestinians nearly impossible. Sharon offered the limited truce in secret talks last week with senior Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia. There was speculation that the meeting -- the prime minister's first with a Palestinian negotiator in about a year -- was aimed at persuading Labor to join his coalition. Labor has said it would not enter a Sharon-led government unless he agreed to withdraw from the Gaza Strip immediately and resume peace talks. The director of Sharon's office, Dov Weisglass, denied any such political motivation to the meeting, which he attended. In talks with Qureia, Sharon did not mention a U.S.-backed plan for Palestinian statehood by 2005. Instead, he reiterated support for a provisional state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza as a long-term interim solution, said a Palestinian official close to the talks. Palestinians have rejected such a plan. Regarding a gradual truce, Sharon proposed that Israeli troops withdraw from Palestinian areas where militants have been subdued by Palestinian security forces, Weisglass said. Similar arrangements have failed in the past, in part because Palestinian security forces weakened by Israeli military strikes have lost control in many areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and because Israel has refused to stop killing Palestinian militants in targeted attacks. A gradual cease-fire took hold for a short while in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, but fell apart after a suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem on Nov. 21 in which 11 people were killed. Israel reoccupied Bethlehem, the bomber's hometown, following the attack. Since June, Israel has reoccupied every West Bank Palestinian town and city, except Jericho, essentially overturning autonomy the Palestinians received in 1994-95 interim peace deals. In the latest violence, three Palestinians were killed Sunday in the Gaza Strip when their explosives-laden car blew up after crashing into a cement block barrier outside an Israeli army post, the military said. Four soldiers were lightly hurt. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat played down the latest Israeli-Palestinian contacts. ``It's only brainstorming where everybody can have a vision for the position of the other side,'' he said after the weekly Palestinian Cabinet meeting. The Palestinians say formal negotiations must pick up where they left off two years ago, when Israel offered to withdraw from Gaza and much of the West Bank. Sharon rejects that demand, saying his predecessors made too many concessions. Arafat has welcomed the renewal of talks, noting that he offered to restart negotiations immediately after Sharon's election victory Jan. 28. The prime minister refuses to hold talks with Arafat, accusing him of encouraging attacks on Israelis. Sharon has repeatedly called for Arafat's removal, and several of his ministers have raised the idea of expelling Arafat from the region. The United States and Europe have repeatedly called for Arafat's removal from power and the pressure to do so will increase once the United States achieves its goals in Iraq, Weisglass said. ``It does not mean that he will be removed from the region or that his leadership will be physically ended,'' the top Sharon aide told Israeli Radio on Saturday, essentially ruling out Arafat's expulsion. Weisglass suggested that the most Arafat could hope for is to transfer all authority to a prime minister and to stay on in a symbolic role. The daily Yediot Ahronot on Sunday quoted a senior Israeli official as saying Sharon and President Bush have agreed that after the Iraq crisis is resolved, Arafat will be removed from power if he refuses to hand control to a prime minister. Later Sunday, in Amman, Weisglass and another top Israeli official met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher and briefed him on the truce offer. On Monday, he is to meet Palestinian Interior Minister Hani al-Hassan at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer, Palestinian officials said. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, meanwhile, said he would make a final decision on meeting with Sharon only after the prime minister has formed his new coalition. In the past, Mubarak has refused to meet with Sharon.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (72535)	2/14/2003 2:05:08 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "Carl, looks like we made the Turks an offer they couldn't refuse. As I predicted: ..." Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Here's the latest news from TurkishPress.com: GOVERNMENT SUSPENDS MOST IMPORTANT STEP REGARDED WITH IRAQI OPERATION Demand to send soldiers to Iraq and to give permission to the U.S. soldiers for passage will not be brought onto the agenda of the parliament on February 18. Government suspended the most important step regarding the Iraqi operation. The reason is that, ''signals for the report of the weapons inspectors on February 14 are positive. Why should be call for a parliamentary decision on February 18 if there are positive developments. Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said they had not set a date. turkishpress.com YAKIS AND BABACAN IN UNITED STATES Bargaining between Turkey and the United States about a possible military operation against Iraq, has moved to Washington D.C. Upon invitation of the White House, State Minister Ali Babacan and Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis left for the United States to reach a compromise on Turkey's political and economic requests. Babacan and Yakis are scheduled to hold contacts with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and with the U.S. Secretary of Treasury. Meanwhile, a third plan of the United Nations about Cyprus is expected to be brought onto agenda of Yakis's contacts. turkishpress.com And a UN resolution authorizing force, in addition to failing to win a majority vote at the Security Council, would also end up with France, Russia and China fighting over the priviledge of vetoing it. -- Carl