WEST BANK: ISRAELI JUSTICE MINISTER YOSEF'TOMMY' LAPID HAS CONDEMNED PALESTINIAN PM AHMED QURIE'S REFUSAL TO MEET ISRAELI PM ARIEL SHARON

Record ID: 400715

  • Title: WEST BANK: ISRAELI JUSTICE MINISTER YOSEF'TOMMY' LAPID HAS CONDEMNED PALESTINIAN PM AHMED QURIE'S REFUSAL TO MEET ISRAELI PM ARIEL SHARON
  • Date: 30th November 2003
  • Summary: (U3) JERUSALEM (NOVEMBER 30, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV SILVAN SHALOM, ISRAELI MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ARRIVING FOR CABINET 0.08 2. SLV SHAUL MOFAZ, ISRAELI MINISTER OF DEFENCE, ARRIVING 0.17 3. MCU (English) TOMMY LAPID, ISRAELI JUSTICE MINISTER, SAYING: "The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority is doing no favour to P
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA6FFU59OR24MU8BT27IZOCX34X
  • Story Text: Israeli Justice minister Yosef 'Tommy' Lapid has
    condemned Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie's refusal
    to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.



    Israeli Justice cabinet minister Yosef 'Tommy'
    Lapid on Sunday (November 30), after a weekly cabinet
    meeting in Jerusalem, said that Palestinian Prime Minister
    Ahmed Qurie is not doing the Israeli Prime Minister any
    favours by not meeting him.

    The seventy-one year-old pundit-turned-politician, a
    survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, made a name for himself
    assailing the power of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel.

    Lapid reacted to comments on Saturday (November 30)
    made by Qurie saying there was no need for talks with
    Sharon as long as Israel continued to build the separation
    wall.

    "The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority is
    doing no favour to Prime Minister Sharon if he meets him.

    It's Prime Minister Sharon who is doing a favour to Abu Ala
    (Ahmed Qurie). So he, Abu Ala, has absolutely no reason and
    no justification to put conditions to such a meeting," said
    Lapid.

    A senior Israeli officials say that Sharon is ready to
    meet Qurie at any time but Israel would not halt
    construction.

    Despite his reservations, Qurie said his top aide
    Hassan Abu Libdeh and cabinet minister Saeb Erekat would
    meet the director of Sharon's office, Dov Weisglass, on
    Sunday to discuss a Sharon-Qurie summit.

    In the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, Erekat
    said that he hopes that his meeting today will open the
    doors to a meeting in the near future between Qurie and
    Sharon.

    "This is a preparatory meeting for the expected meeting
    between the Palestinian Prime Minister and the Israeli
    Prime Minister. We will exert every possible effort in
    order to revive the peace process. We will exert every
    possible effort in order to see to it that we have the
    mechanism for the implementation of the timelines to
    implement our mutual obligations emanating from the road
    map. This is a process that we hope to lead to the
    mutuality and the reciprocity of the implementations of the
    obligations on each side. We are ready to carry out all our
    obligations. We hope that the Israeli side will be ready to
    carry out it's obligations. And at the same time, we want
    to see that the quartet role is revived because they have
    responsibilities, they are the judges, they are the ones
    that decide to move from one stage to another," Erekat
    said. The United States is leading a Middle East
    peac
    e plan
    known as the "road map", which calls on Israel to withdraw
    from occupied territory and on Palestinians to rein in
    militants ahead of the establishment of a Palestinian state
    by 2005.



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