Sharon's statehood proposal as card- stacking ploy
Egypt-Israel, Politics, 4/17/2001

Egypt's Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said Israel's proposal for a Palestinian state on 42 per cent of the West Bank had no foundation.

"This (proposal) does not create point to move from or build upon," Moussa told reporters yesterday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published on Friday that he envisaged a long-term interim peace deal giving Palestinians a state of far less territory than they demand.

He said the new state would have to be demilitarized and its police forces are armed only to maintain order, while Israel would for years oversee the external borders and be free to fly over the territory.

Moussa criticized the proposal as card stacking ploy, indicating that Israel could persuade Western countries that Palestinian violence, and not Israeli aggression, was responsible for the turmoil in the area.

He added that this confusion should be cleared in order to allow for a fairer understanding of the Palestinian plight.

"Israel's argument that Palestinian violence was responsible for the delay in talks is totally false and misleading. It has no truth in it" he said.

In the meantime, Moussa asserted that Egypt was not exercising any pressure on the Palestinians to accept or reject any deal, explaining that Cairo was primarily concerned with supporting the Palestinian negotiating position.

"Egypt does not tell the Palestinians to attend or boycott any meetings," he said in reference to the security talk which will open between the Palestinian and Israeli sides today.

When asked about the difficulty of resuming peace talks, Moussa said Egypt and Jordan had made several proposals to restore the process to the right track, adding that redressing Israeli injustices was the only way to deal with the aggravating Palestinian frustration.

"Returning to the negotiations table will not solve the problems. We want to see an end to all the Israeli provocations especially the construction of Jewish settlements," he said.

He expected the security meeting to produce little progress if Israel failed to commit itself to halting the construction of more settlements.

When asked about the weak Arab response to Israel's provocations and saber-rattling statements, Moussa said "the right response would come on time."

Previous Stories:
  One Egyptian girl hit by the Israeli bullet   (4/16/2001)
  Egyptian concern over Israeli policy   (4/14/2001)
  Ovadia's statements Anti-Semitic   (4/12/2001)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search