MIDDLE EAST: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER CANCELS TRUCE TALKS WITH THE PALESTINIANS DESPITE WORLD PRESSURE

Record ID: 400350

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER CANCELS TRUCE TALKS WITH THE PALESTINIANS DESPITE WORLD PRESSURE
  • Date: 23rd September 2001
  • Summary: (W3) JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 23, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AT CABINET MEETING WITH MINISTERS (6 SHOTS) 0.19 (U4) JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 23, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 2. ISRAELI CABINET SECRETARY GIDEON SAAR GIVING MV BRIEFING TO MEDIA AFTER ISRAELI CABINET MEETING 0.27 3. SV CAMER
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ RAFAH GAZA/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA13OHRL1PQA4XTZBELSISLYQVZ
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cancelled truce
    talks with the Palestinians despite world pressure to cool a
    year-long conflict as the United States tries to build an
    anti-terror coalition.



    Israeli government officials said Sharon vetoed plans
    by his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to meet Palestinian
    leader Yasser Arafat on Sunday (September 23) because
    anti-Israeli violence had not stopped after a ceasefire
    announced last Tuesday.

    Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar however, held out the
    possibility Arafat and Peres could meet at a later date. "The
    prime minister made it clear that he is not against such
    meetings when the conditions will be appropriate," Saar told
    reporters.

    Sharon's decision was another slap in the face to the
    dovish Peres, whose plans to meet Arafat and try to kickstart
    a U.S.-backed talks-to-truce plan have been vetoed repeatedly
    by the right-wing leader of Israel's "national unity"
    government.

    "Yasser Arafat did not pass the test of...fighting
    terrorism," Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin told Reuters.

    As examples, Israeli officials cited a mortar bomb attack
    on a Jewish settlement in Gaza on Saturday and what they said
    was the failure of Palestinian authorities to detain a man
    wanted by Israel on suspicion of killing of a West Bank
    settler last week.

    Jibril Rajoub, a Palestinian security chief in the West
    Bank, told Reuters the suspect was under arrest and
    interrogation.

    But the attacks provided ammunition to right-wing members
    of Sharon's ruling coalition to pressure the prime minister --
    who called Arafat a terrorist in a CNN interview on Friday --
    to scrap the talks.

    Sharon has demanded 48 hours of quiet as a condition for
    talks with Arafat on cementing the five-day-old truce.

    Arafat, touring the flashpoint southern Gaza town of Rafah
    on Sunday after visiting Saudi Arabia, defended to a crowd of
    hundreds of Palestinians his plans to meet Peres in the
    context of the devastating attacks in New York and Washington.

    "We are in a phase that shocked the world," he said. "The
    Israelis want to exploit this phase in order to reoccupy
    (Palestinian-ruled areas)...We are in this historical
    challenge -- either to be or not to be -- so be patient."
    Although fighting has subsided to a great extent, sporadic
    violence has continued. Three Palestinians and an Israeli have
    been killed since the ceasefire was called.

    Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo
    responded angrily to news of the cancellation, hours before
    what Palestinian officials had said would be an evening
    meeting between Peres and Arafat at Gaza's airport.

    "This is a gang, not a responsible government of a state,"
    Abed Rabbo said. "If Peres asks for a meeting next time, we'll
    have to ask him -- who do you represent? This shows you cannot
    trust any promise or agreement the Israelis make."
    Peres has been pushing to meet Arafat, saying Israel owed
    Washington a debt of gratitude for decades of support and
    wanted to help it enlist Arab and Muslim states into a broad
    alliance after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

    Previous meetings between the two Nobel Peace prize
    laureates have failed to end the bloodshed since the start
    last September of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli
    occupation.

    Peres, whose Labour Party is the main partner in the
    ruling coalition, made no immediate comment on Sharon's move.

    The international community has put Arafat and Peres under
    pressure to reach an accommodation and help attract Muslim
    nations into the U.S.-led coalition to fight global terrorism
    after the devastating attacks on the United States.

    On Saturday, members of the militant Hamas group and other
    Palestinian officials said Hamas was willing to suspend
    suicide attacks inside Israel "in the coming period" unless it
    was provoked by the Jewish state.

    At least 586 Palestinians and 168 Israelis have been
    killed since the uprising began.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register