- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel
has responded defiantly to unusually sharp criticism by U.S. President
George W. Bush of a barrier it is building through Palestinian areas in
the West Bank.
-
- Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said on Thursday the
barrier, a measure Israel contends is necessary to stop suicide bombers
and which the Palestinians condemn as a land grab, would remain an option.
-
- "Israel will always have the right to take unilateral
steps for separation from the Palestinians through a fence or other means,"
Olmert told Israel Radio.
-
- In a speech in London on Wednesday, Bush toughened his
stance over the barrier, saying Israel must not prejudice final peace negotiations
"with the placement of walls and fences".
-
- A senior Israeli official said there were some issues
upon which Israel and the United States "do not see eye-to-eye",
but that Israel would continue to do what it believed was best to secure
its citizens and protect them from Palestinian militants.
-
- Israeli officials said they were resigned to the expectation
that the United States would deduct the cost of parts of the barrier and
of building Jewish settlements on occupied land from $9 billion in loan
guarantees.
-
- Further diplomatic pressure on Israel came from the U.N.
Security Council, which voted unanimously for a Russian-drafted resolution
supporting a Middle East peace plan known as the "road map".
-
- Israel had opposed the resolution, wanting no U.N. role
in peacemaking since it sees the world body as pro-Palestinian.
-
- "Judgment regarding the plan's implementation will
be in the hands of the United States," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's office said in a statement. "Israel will not accept any other
intervention in the implementation of the plan."
-
- The United States is the chief sponsor of the road map,
which lays out steps Israel and the Palestinians should take towards setting
up a Palestinian state by 2005.
-
- Underscoring Israeli rejection of the U.N. resolution,
Sharon said in a speech in Tel Aviv that Israel was committed to the road
map "that President Bush presented".
-
- "In addition to this, we do not rule out unilateral
steps," he said in apparent reference to the West Bank barrier.
-
- GAZA TRUCE TALKS
-
- Egyptian mediators in Gaza coaxed Palestinian militant
groups to agree to attend truce negotiations in Cairo early next month
after two days of talks with faction leaders in the Gaza Strip.
-
- "The groups have expressed good intentions and their
desire to reach a ceasefire agreement," Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed
Maher told reporters in Cairo.
-
- Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both committed to Israel's destruction
and behind a suicide bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of Israelis,
said they would attend the truce talks on December 2. Arafat's Fatah faction
would also attend.
-
- A ceasefire agreement could shore up the road map, which
has been stalled by persistent Israeli-Palestinian violence.
-
- Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie are
expected to meet next week for the first time since the new Palestinian
government was installed on November 12.
-
- Qurie hopes to win Israeli agreement to a truce and move
beyond a unilateral ceasefire that militants declared in June and which
collapsed in a spate of violence two months later.
-
- Israel rules out any formal truce with Islamic militants
but has said it will suspend a campaign to capture or kill their leaders
if attacks against Israelis cease.
|
