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U.S. Visit Sheds Light on Growing Rift Between Peres And Sharon
JERUSALEM, Nov 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The peace mission by U.S. envoys has thrown light on a growing rift between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and hard-line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over how to approach a ceasefire which one envoy said would be the "first step" toward the creation of a Palestinian state.
Peres, a former prime minister, has ruled out quitting Sharon's right-leaning national unity government. But he publicly criticized the hardline former general over his rigid insistence that truce talks can only deal with security issues to the exclusion of any political element.
"Negotiations to reach a ceasefire must have complex, serious and emotional dimensions, and it's on this point that I differ from the prime minister," Peres told a meeting of his Labor party, adding that the disagreement was not personal.
"This is not just a technical difference," said Peres. "It is an important question if we really want to achieve a ceasefire, and then move on to political negotiations."
Peres' comments came hours after U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni, a retired U.S. general and commander in the Persian Gulf, concluded his first round of talks with both sides on ending the 14 months of violence.
Sharon has also irritated Peres by insisting on seven days of total calm before moving ahead with the globally-endorsed Mitchell plan, which is designed to defuse tensions, restore calm and open the door to political talks.
Sharon reiterated that he would not "negotiate under fire" in a Tel Aviv speech Thursday, hours before leaving for Washington for a five-day visit that will end with a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush.
Peres was shunted aside earlier this week when Sharon appointed a hardline former general and army colleague, who reportedly commanded a military death squad in charge of killing Palestinians, to negotiate a ceasefire with the Palestinians, with U.S. mediation.
Peres criticized Sharon's nomination of General Meir Dagan to head the negotiating team. "Comprehensive negotiations must be led by someone who has a broad political vision," said Peres, "not just limited experience."
Peres, who pushed Sharon to let him meet Arafat in September for truce talks, said he said he had been looking to hold negotiations with the Palestinians in a "political and serious language."
Some Israeli media outlets said at the start of the week that Peres found Dagan "too extremist" and denounced the fact that the team was formed on such a low-level, being made up solely of technical security experts.
The Palestinian delegation, on the other hand, is formed from the top strata of political negotiators, and is headed by parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei, an experienced peace strategist and one of the architects of the 1993 Palestinian autonomy accord, known as the Oslo agreement.
Peres, the leading opposition figure in Sharon's ruling coalition, lashed out at Sharon in a security cabinet meeting Wednesday, when he accused him of "bypassing me and forming a second foreign ministry" from among his own foreign advisors, the press reported.
Cabinet secretary Gideon Saar confirmed on Israeli army radio that Peres had in effect used such terms.
He stressed, however, that the differences "do not threaten the stability of the government." He added there would be another Sharon-Peres meeting next week after the prime minister's return from his meeting with Bush.
Another point of friction emerged when Sharon tapped his own advisor Dore Gold - a former ambassador to the United Nations - to the key post of ambassador to the United States, to take up his duties next year.
Meanwhile, the issue of the ceasefire was also taken up by the U.S. envoys.
"We discussed the ways in which we can continue to work together to try to help produce a durable ceasefire between Palestinians and Israelis," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns said.
He said it would be "the first step toward a rapid implementation of the Tenet and Mitchell plans in all their aspects and the resumption of the political process."
A ceasefire would clear the path to "the realization of the vision that both Bush and [U.S. Secretary of State Colin] Powell have discussed of the emergence of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," Burns said.
Zinni, whom the U.S. embassy in Cairo said earlier in the week would travel with Burns to the Egyptian capital, stayed on in Israel for further talks on Thursday.
Zinni was to meet Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs Thursday, on the third day of his mission to size up the 14-month conflict and bring both sides back to a lasting ceasefire, U.S. officials said.
After a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, the retired Marine Corps general was heading for Tel Aviv to hold talks with Israeli chief of staff General Shaul Mofaz and other top brass of the Jewish state.
He was then due to meet Palestinian parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei for political talks in Abu Dis, the Palestinian administrative district on the edge of occupied east Jerusalem, U.S. and Palestinian officials said.
Following that meeting, Zinni was to head on for Ramallah to meet the head of preventative security in the West Bank, Colonel Jibril Rajoub, for security discussions, U.S. officials in Tel Aviv said.
After a meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Zinni said, "We need to end the violence and we need to get back on track towards peace."
Arafat said the talks with Zinni and Burns had been "intensive and important", adding he was "going to make [a] 100 percent effort" to achieve a ceasefire with Israel.
Washington has said Zinni will stay in the region until he has secured a truce to end 14 months of violence and begin steps to revive peace talks between the two sides.
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