JERUSALEM/GAZA: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AND HIS PALESTINIAN COUNTERPART MAHMOUD ABBAS ARRIVE IN JERUSALEM FOR TALKS

Record ID: 400124

  • Title: JERUSALEM/GAZA: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AND HIS PALESTINIAN COUNTERPART MAHMOUD ABBAS ARRIVE IN JERUSALEM FOR TALKS
  • Date: 17th May 2003
  • Summary: (U6) JERUSALEM (MAY 17, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV EMPTY STREET 0.06 2. SV ISRAELI SOLDIERS CARRYING BARRICADES 0.11 3. LV ISRAELI FLAGS 0.17 4. SV SECURITY ON HORSEBACK 0.28 5. LV ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES WALKING IN STREET 0.40 6. SV ISRAELI SECURITY STANDING NEXT TO MILITARY VEHICLE 0.47 7. SLV/SV OF
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM / GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Jerusalem
  • Reuters ID: LVA4379KNBS1LSRJQ9LTHX6JXU87
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian
    counterpart Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday for
    the highest-level Middle East talks in two years, divided over
    a U.S.-backed "road map" for peace.



    Palestinian officials in Abbas's entourage said he had
    reached Sharon's office for talks on Saturday (May 17) after
    travelling by motorcade from the Gaza Strip. Expectations for
    a breakthrough were low.

    Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's first talks with his
    recently elected, reformist counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, could
    provide an early sign of whether the three-phase peace plan
    based on reciprocal moves has any real chance of success.

    The key question is who will take the first step under the
    proposal that Washington hails as a new opportunity for peace
    in the Middle East following the war in Iraq. The plan
    envisages an independent Palestinian state by 2005 and
    security for Israel.

    But Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a senior official of the militant
    group Hamas, said the meeting wouldn't change anything.

    "First of all, Abu Mazen shouldn't meet with Sharon
    nowadays, especially nowadays, especially while Sharon (is)
    invading Gaza, killing innocents and demolishing houses. So
    this meeting just will give Sharon chance to be the man of
    peace while Sharon is the man of terror. The end result of
    this meeting will be just big zero, nothing else," Rantissi
    said, speaking ahead of the meeting.

    Israel has balked at implementing the road map as is and
    wants Abbas to crack down on Palestinian militants
    spearheading a 31-month-old revolt. Palestinian officials say
    Israel must first accept the plan and relax its military grip
    in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Palestinians want for a
    state.

    Israel wants Arafat isolated, accusing him of inciting
    violence and suicide bombings throughout the Palestinian
    uprising. The 74-year-old ex-guerrilla leader denies the
    charge.

    Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, will be meeting Sharon for
    the first time since becoming prime minister on April 30.

    The sides last held high-level talks in September 2001.

    Then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met Arafat, whom Israel now
    shuns.

    Any meeting of minds could smooth Sharon's talks with U.S.

    President George W. Bush in Washington on Tuesday (May 20) on
    the road map, which Israel's right-wing government has not yet
    accepted.

    Washington has urged both sides to get on with the plan,
    which calls for ending violence, freezing Israeli settlement
    expansion in the West Bank and Gaza and a Palestinian state.


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