|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, February 9, 2001 - Web posted at 10:11:32 AM GMT Conflicting positions emerge on Mideast peace process key issues JERUSALEM/GAZA - In his first address after his election Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon was quick to make clear that his vision of a peace agreement with the Palestinians differs significantly from that of his predecessor Ehud Barak. Senior Palestinian politicians, however, have declared that negotiations based on Sharon's conditions would be "useless". The positions of both sides on the central questions of the peace process are as follows: PEACE AGREEMENT:Palestinians: An encompassing, lasting peace agreement is necessary to end the conflict between the two peoples. To that purpose, all controversial questions should be solved on the basis of United Nations resolutions 242 and 338, which call on Israel to withdraw from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East War. Negotiations should continue from the point at which they were broken off under Barak - with the agreements reached at the Taba peace talks in January, which were based on compromise proposals submitted by former US president Bill Clinton. Sharon: A final peace agreement in the foreseeable future is an unattainable goal. He therefore wants a long-term interim agreement which postpones almost all of the controversial questions, including sovereignty of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the borders of the future Palestinian state. The far-reaching Clinton proposals are unacceptable to Sharon. BORDERS:Palestinians: A complete Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories on the basis of UN Resolutions. Israel must cede territory to the Palestinians in return for the West Bank land it wishes to annex. At the end of the process an independent Palestinian state will be proclaimed. Sharon: In the framework of an interim agreement, the Palestinians will more or less keep the territories over which they have autonomous rule at present (some 42 per cent of the West Bank and most of the Gaza Strip). The fertile Jordan Valley on the border with Jordan stays under Israeli control. Sharon apparently accepts the establishment of a Palestinian state in these territories. SETTLEMENTS:Palestinians: All settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip must be disbanded after the Israeli withdrawal form the occupied territories. However, Palestinians may agree to the establishment of three "settlement blocks" in the occupied territories. Sharon: The Jewish settlements are holy to him. He sees the West Bank as part of the Biblical Land of Israel, and also as essential to Israel's security. He has promised the approximately 200,000 Jewish settlers that not a single settlement will be disbanded. JERUSALEM:Palestinians: Division of the city into an Arab East Jerusalem, including the Old City, and a Jewish West Jerusalem. Palestinian sovereignty over the non-Jewish shrines in the Old City and over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount Compound, which is sacred to both Moslems and Jews. Only the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, and the Western, or Wailing Wall, will remain under Israeli sovereignty. Sharon: Jerusalem remains "the eternal and undivided capital of Israel". REFUGEES:Palestinians: Insist that Israel recognise the right of approximately 3,7 million Palestinians to return to their homes in Israel which they fled in the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war. Sharon: Rejects the right of return, as did his predecessor Barak. - Nampa-Sapa-DPA |
PO Box 20783 - Windhoek - 42 John Meinert Street Tel: +264 (61) 236970 - Fax: +264 (61) 233980 e-mail: info@namibian.com.na webmaster@namibian.com.na
|
