Sharon, Abbas to Meet in Shadow of Saudi Blasts

14/05/2003| IslamWeb

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmud Abbas, will hold their first meeting this weekend, a Palestinian official said as deadly attacks in Saudi Arabia cast a new shadow over the region. Earlier, US Secretary of State Colin Powell strove to reassure the Palestinians over the future of the international roadmap for peace with Israel, even as Sharon said the thorny issue of Jewish settlements was not on his agenda. Powell said on the Jordanian leg of a regional tour that the United States would not "rewrite" the roadmap during Sharon's visit to Washington on May 20 aimed at securing concessions for Israel. "Israel has some comments on the roadmap and we will listen to their comments but we do not plan to rewrite or renegotiate the roadmap," Powell said at a news conference in Amman. He was speaking shortly before heading for Riyadh, where bombing attacks blamed on the Al-Qaeda movement blasted three compounds for foreign workers on the edge of the Saudi capital. The US State Department said later that more than 90 people were killed, including 10-12 Americans. US officials later backtracked, saying the final toll would be closer to the Saudi estimate of 29. Palestinian officials had expressed concern that Israel would not comply with the blueprint drafted by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia to end violence and move towards the creation of a Palestinian state. Powell met with Sharon and Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, on Sunday but left the next day with nothing to show, having failed to secure Israel's official acceptance of the plan. Sharon's government announced only very minor goodwill measures, which sparked Palestinian fears Israel was trying to dump the roadmap altogether. The document calls on Palestinians to crack down on militants, but also urges Israel to freeze all settlement activity. However, Sharon said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post that this issue, a major stumbling block in any negotiations, was not even on his agenda. "It is not something today that anyone is dealing with," Sharon told the English-language newspaper, saying Israel was under no US pressure to take any action even against unauthorised settlement outposts. A Palestinian official said that meeting would take place Saturday "to get Sharon's approval of the roadmap, since Powell was not able to secure Israeli acceptance." The meeting will be attended by Palestinian interior security minister Mohammad Dahlan, who is expected to lead a crackdown on intifada, and parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei, the Palestinian official said. Meanwhile, five Jewish settlers and six Israeli soldiers were wounded Tuesday by Palestinian fire on the southern Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif, military sources said. The army continued its sweep of the West Bank, arresting seven Palestinians and demolishing the house of a member from the Hamas group, Palestinian security sources said. Meanwhile, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was following in the footsteps of Powell, with meetings with Sharon and Abbas in a bid to boost the roadmap. Sharon met Papandreou but refused to see EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, though both men had talks scheduled with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in defiance of Israeli wishes. Panandreou later met with Arafat, who thanked him for EU support given to the Palestinians. The Greek minister, for his part, reiterated EU support for a viable Palestinian state living in peace with its Israeli neighbor. Israel wants foreign diplomats not to see Arafat in order not to undermine Abbas' new power-sharing position, but an Israel official stressed that the rule was not ironclad and that Sharon decides his meetings with foreign officials on a case by case basis. **PHOTO CAPITON*** An Israeli soldier stands next to a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian after the forces arrested him along with other youths, in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, Tuesday, May 13, 2003. (AP Photo/Muhammad Azba)