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US, Israel move towards agreement on Gaza pullout
Washington, Mar 02: The Bush administration is moving toward an agreement with Israel on its plans to unilaterally remove settlements in the Gaza Strip, people familiar with the negotiations said after talks.
Washington, Mar 02: The Bush administration is moving toward an agreement with Israel on its plans to unilaterally remove settlements in the Gaza Strip, people familiar with the negotiations said after talks.
Top advisers to president George W. Bush see Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan as a potentially positive interim step while a U.S.-backed ''road map'' peace initiative remains stalled, U.S. and Israeli sources said yesterday.
Yesteray, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglass, and White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, reviewed the ''practical steps'' needed to carry out Israel's so-called disengagement plan. They are preparing for a White House meeting between Bush and Sharon, most likely in late March or early April, the sources said.
Sharon has proposed evacuating most of the 7,500 Jewish settlers living in hard-to-defend enclaves in the Gaza Strip and setting a new ''security line'' in the West Bank which Palestinians fear will lead to annexation of settlement blocs.
More than 200,000 settlers and two million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which Israel captured along with Gaza in the 1967 West Asia war.
A senior Bush administration official said after Monday's talks the White House is not yet prepared to endorse Sharon's disengagement plans. ''It has not been settled yet. They haven't fully presented their ideas,'' the official said. But Washington has signalled tentative support despite initial reservations.
''A move to disengage from the settlements in Gaza could reduce friction between the Israelis and the Palestinians,'' a senior Bush administration official said.
Israeli officials assert that unilateral moves by the Jewish state would not preclude future implementation of the road map, which has been deadlocked for months because of ongoing violence.
The Palestinians have voiced concern that Sharon's threatened unilateral steps -- including drawing the security line – would leave Israel in permanent control of large West Bank settlement blocs. The White House says it is seeking a negotiated final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, and wants Sharon to stick as closely as possible to the road map, which calls for reciprocal moves by the two sides with the aim of bringing about a Palestinian state by 2005.
''Neither side may impose final conditions on the other,'' a senior administration official said.
But U.S. and Israeli officials see little hope at this time of renewing negotiations with the Palestinians, saying President Yasser Arafat has effectively stripped the new prime minister of any real power over Palestinian security forces.
Bureau Report
Yesteray, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglass, and White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, reviewed the ''practical steps'' needed to carry out Israel's so-called disengagement plan. They are preparing for a White House meeting between Bush and Sharon, most likely in late March or early April, the sources said.
Sharon has proposed evacuating most of the 7,500 Jewish settlers living in hard-to-defend enclaves in the Gaza Strip and setting a new ''security line'' in the West Bank which Palestinians fear will lead to annexation of settlement blocs.
More than 200,000 settlers and two million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which Israel captured along with Gaza in the 1967 West Asia war.
A senior Bush administration official said after Monday's talks the White House is not yet prepared to endorse Sharon's disengagement plans. ''It has not been settled yet. They haven't fully presented their ideas,'' the official said. But Washington has signalled tentative support despite initial reservations.
''A move to disengage from the settlements in Gaza could reduce friction between the Israelis and the Palestinians,'' a senior Bush administration official said.
Israeli officials assert that unilateral moves by the Jewish state would not preclude future implementation of the road map, which has been deadlocked for months because of ongoing violence.
The Palestinians have voiced concern that Sharon's threatened unilateral steps -- including drawing the security line – would leave Israel in permanent control of large West Bank settlement blocs. The White House says it is seeking a negotiated final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, and wants Sharon to stick as closely as possible to the road map, which calls for reciprocal moves by the two sides with the aim of bringing about a Palestinian state by 2005.
''Neither side may impose final conditions on the other,'' a senior administration official said.
But U.S. and Israeli officials see little hope at this time of renewing negotiations with the Palestinians, saying President Yasser Arafat has effectively stripped the new prime minister of any real power over Palestinian security forces.
Bureau Report