Solana warned that Sharon had a ‘key role’ in trying to get the Middle East peace process back on track

BRUSSELS, January 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The EU will stick to its Middle East peace plan whatever government emerges after Ariel Sharon's sweeping poll victory in Israeli, which marked a defeat of the peace camp there, foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday, January 29.

Meanwhile, China said Wednesday it respected the Israeli election result but refrained from congratulating Prime Minister Sharon, while in a surprise development, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak agreed to become the first Arab leader to meet the right-wing premier after he forms his government, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Solana said it was a "fantastic victory" for Sharon's party, but also "the defeat of proportions greater than expected of the peace camp represented by the Labor party and the parties of the left."

Solana stressed that Sharon bears a "tremendous responsibility" to try to resurrect the peace process in the region at a crucial time.

"What type of government will be established is very difficult to say at this point in time," Solana told reporters hours after hawkish Prime Minister Ariel Sharon swept back to power.

But the European Union official added: "From my point of view, the policy of the EU should continue.

"We have an aim, we have a goal that is not going to be changed because of the results of the elections," he said, reiterating the EU's backing for an international "road map" to create a Palestinian state by 2005.

The plan, drawn up by a diplomatic “quartet" on the Middle East comprising the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations, was put on ice in the run-up to the Israeli election.

But Solana said if implemented the road map would enable Israel and the Palestinians to live "in peace, and we will continue to work in the context of the quartet".

The EU envoy added that the Israeli vote was characterized by three distinct elements: Likud's impressive win, a slump by the dovish Labor party and a record-low turnout.

"What are the meanings of all these three elements we have to see in the coming hours and in the coming days," Solana said.

But he warned that Sharon had a key role in trying to get the Middle East peace process back on track.

"It will be a tremendous responsibility for the new government to put the train in motion towards peace," he said.

"All the policies you can do does not depend on coalitions and on others it depends on what you want to do. That is why you have more responsibility," he told reporters.

Likud virtually doubled its representation in parliament from 19 seats to 37, near-complete official results showed, while Labor, the architects of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, fell to 19 seats from 25 in the outgoing parliament.

Israel's system of proportional representation ensures Sharon still faces a daunting task in stitching together a new governing coalition.

Turnout was an all-time low with just 69 percent of voters going to the polls against an average of 79 percent in previous elections.

China respects result, but no congratulations

In Beijing, China said Wednesday it "respected" the Israeli election result but refrained from congratulating Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"The Israeli election is an internal affair," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "China respects the choice made by the Israeli people."

"We feel uneasy and worried at the escalation and tension between Israel and Palestine," foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a briefing Tuesday, January 28.

"The violence-for-violence policy is not conducive to the settlement of the question," she said.

Leader of Israel's dovish Meretz party resigns after poll setback

Meanwhile, in occupied Jerusalem, Yossi Sarid, the leader of Israel's dovish Meretz party resigned Wednesday, a spokesman announced a day after the left-wing party suffered a severe setback in legislative elections.

Meretz saw its parliamentary representation slashed from 10 to six in Tuesday's vote, which led to major gains for the right, near-complete official results showed.

Sarid had earlier told journalists he would step down if his party polled just five seats.

Former minister Yossi Beilin, who recently defected from Labor to Meretz, said: "There is no doubt that these elections are a stunning blow for the peace camp."

He added that the left now had to "rebuild itself in opposition", presenting itself as a "real alternative" to the right-wing policies of Sharon.

Mubarak to meet Sharon

Mubarak and Sharon are to meet to discuss the Middle East peace process after the hawkish Israeli premier has formed a new government, Israeli officials said Wednesday.

The two leaders agreed to meet during a phone call made by Mubarak to congratulate the re-elected Israeli leader, Sharon's office said in a statement.

"Prime Minister Sharon thanked President Mubarak and the two discussed the need for the continuation of the Middle East peace process, and agreed to meet after the new government is established," the statement said.

"Mr. Mubarak congratulated Sharon on his election victory, and both of them agreed that it is necessary to relaunch the peace process," government spokesman David Baker told AFP.

"Both also agreed to work together in the near future on this issue," he added.

Mubarak told Al-Ittihad newspaper in Dubai on Tuesday that he felt Arab governments had to "deal with the Israeli prime minister in a new way" in order to relaunch the Middle East peace process.

Speaking of Sharon's imminent re-election, the Egyptian leader said it would be "inopportune to stay quiet."

Egypt recalled its ambassador to Israel in November 2000 just after the start of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, condemning the excessive use of force by the Israeli army in the Palestinian territories.

Since then relations between the two countries have been cool although Egypt has been trying to play the role of intermediary in the 28-month conflict.

Egypt has regularly received left-wing figures from the Israeli peace camp, but its contacts with Sharon and his right-wing government have been minimal.

Israel does not want peace: Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's resounding election victory proves that the Jewish state has no interest in making peace with the Palestinians, Lebanon's foreign minister said Wednesday.

"Sharon's re-election proves that Israel is not ready to or does not hope to reach a just and comprehensive peace with the Palestinians based on international legitimacy," Mahmoud Hammoud told journalists here.

Hammoud deplored the fact that the "international community does not call Israel to account for the massacre of innocents and destruction that it commits.

"Israeli aggression on the land of Palestine necessitates international action to re-establish the rights of the Palestinian people for the establishment of its independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Sides of the same coin

In Damascus, Syria's official press Wednesday discounted Israel's election results which maintained hardline Sharon in power, saying their only purpose was to determine who could do most harm to the Palestinians.

Al-Baath, the organ of the ruling party, said, "The results of the Israeli elections are not important, because all the Israeli leaders are sides of the same coin."

The elections "are only a game where roles are swapped to prove who will employ more terrorism and commit more crimes" against the Palestinians.

The English-language Syria Times commented, "The problem with the Israeli election is that it does not vote on the best means to realize a just and comprehensive peace in the region but rather on the best means to do the Arabs more harm and more misery.

"This all shows that Israeli voters are all in all totally opposed to the whole peace concept."

Referring to recent Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip, the paper said, "The horrifying blood shedding crimes carried out last week by Sharon's heavily equipped troops against the defenseless Palestinian people and cities have illustrated to the Israeli voters only a small portion of Sharon's future plans for the Palestinians."