|
Sharon, Arafat Speak On Phone, As Protests Begin Again
JERUSALEM, Feb 9 (News Agencies) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat telephoned Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon Friday, with both men declaring during the conversation their commitment to work toward peace, Sharon's office said.
"Arafat stated that the Palestinians want peace and he is interested in renewing talks with Israel," the statement said, referring to the first conversation the two have had since Sharon was elected on Tuesday.
"Prime Minister-elect Sharon said that Israel and the Palestinians must find a way to move forward towards peace. He stressed the security situation is important to both sides and for stability in the entire region," the statement said.
Meanwhile, U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, said Sharon had told him about the phone call and conveyed to the U.N. official his wish to meet with Arafat to discuss the peace process.
"My firm impression is that Mr. Sharon's intention is to continue the peace dialogue with Mr. Arafat and the Palestinians," Roed-Larsen told reporters after meeting with Sharon in Jerusalem.
Sharon "also informed me of his intention to meet Mr. Arafat in order to discuss the agenda for the peace process."
Arafat's phone call followed the hawkish Likud party leader's landslide victory Tuesday over incumbent premier Ehud Barak and speculation about whether Sharon will put a halt to the peace process in light of the four-month wave of violence that has rocked the region.
Commenting on Israeli methods to stop the violence, Sharon told Arafat he would distinguish between Palestinian civilians and those waging attacks against Israel, the statement from Sharon's office said.
"With regard to [the closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip], the prime minister-elect is willing to ease restrictions if there is a complete cessation of violence and the Palestinian Authority fights against the foundations of terrorism," the statement said.
It added that Sharon told Arafat: "Israel wants peace - peace that will last for generations with total security."
During the election campaign, Sharon vowed not to hand any more land to the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and swore he would never share Jerusalem with the Palestinians.
Roed-Larsen also said Sharon told him he would renew Israel's cooperation with the international fact-finding body, headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, that is investigating the origins of the four-month-old wave of violence that has rocked the region.
"I was particularly satisfied that the prime minister-elect announced he would receive the Mitchell commission and honor agreements made by the previous government," Larsen said.
Roed-Larsen also was upbeat about Sharon's position regarding Israel's closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has strangled the Palestinian economy.
Roed-Larsen also said: "I underlined that if there is no significant [financial] transfers from Israel and the international community that in a very short period of time, we may face the virtual collapse of Palestinian institutions".
Commenting on Sharon's less-than-warm reception in the Arab world and the international community, he said it was too soon to predict if Sharon would exacerbate regional tensions.
"Everyone is in a waiting mood," he said.
Meanwhile, violent clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians Friday, including a gunfight, left 29 injured, after a night of some of the worst fighting in weeks.
Israeli soldiers fired live rounds and rubber-coated steel bullets on youths who threw stones at them after a protest march of some 1,500 people following afternoon prayers in Ramallah, witnesses and medical officials said.
An intense gunfight between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers - who fired tank-mounted weapons - also rang out Friday near an Israeli checkpoint on the northern edge of Ramallah for the first time there in six weeks.
Twenty-four Palestinians were injured in Ramallah, including eight who were shot with live rounds, hospital officials said.
Also in Ramallah, Israeli soldiers shot French photographer Laurent Van Derstock in the leg with a live bullet.
Derstock, who works for the Gamma photographic agency, was taken to a Ramallah hospital where he was described as in stable condition.
The clashes and gunfight in Ramallah followed a night that saw the Israeli army fire heavy machine-guns on the Palestinian-run area, lightly injuring four people, medical officials said.
While the Israeli army still frequently uses heavy weapons to confront fighting in the Gaza Strip, their use in the West Bank has seen a marked reduction in recent weeks.
Three other Palestinians were also hurt late Thursday by rubber-coated bullets in clashes in the village of Dier Nizam, 15 kilometers (nine miles) west of Ramallah.
A coalition of Palestinian factions had declared Friday a "day of rage," a common call since the Palestinian uprising or Intifada started in late September.
Nearly 400 people have been killed during the Intifada, most of them Palestinians.
In the southern West Bank town of Hebron, dozens of youths threw rocks at Israeli soldiers after a march in which protesters set fire to an effigy of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon, witnesses said.
Between Hebron and Bethlehem, Jewish settlers blocked a road and threw stones at Palestinian cars, witnesses said.
In the Gaza Strip, four Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire, three at the Karni crossing point from Gaza to Israel.
Some 3,000 supporters of the Islamic resistance group Hamas marched through Gaza City Friday, carrying a coffin inscribed with "death to Israel." They also carried a dummy representing U.S. President George W. Bush, but did not destroy it.
Friday's violence came one day after a car bomb explosion shook an ultra-Orthodox district of Jerusalem, raising tensions in the Middle East as Israel's Sharon struck a tough pose with the Palestinians.
One person was treated for shock following the explosion, which occurred just two days after Sharon was elected prime minister by a landslide in a humiliating defeat for incumbent Ehud Barak.
At the rally, supporters of Islamic Jihad vowed to continue to send explosions in the heart of Israel.
For the first time at an Islamic Jihad rally in the Palestinian territories, masked, armed members marched in military-style uniforms.
Some 20 gunmen, about a dozen of them in uniforms, fired assault rifles into the air and said they belonged to the Brigade of al-Quds (Jerusalem), which they said was Islamic Jihad's armed wing.
"We, in the Brigade of Al-Quds, confirm that our path is the path of the bullet to the Zionist enemy," said one of the gunmen, who carried both Kalashnikov and U.S.-made M-16 assault rifles.
"The option of jihad [holy struggle] and explosions in the heart of the enemy will remain until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine.
"We will meet Sharon with suicide operations," he added.
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have carried out dozens of bomb attacks against Israelis.
|
