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Sharon's challenge: Iraq pushing Israel off radar screen

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, March 20, 2001

JERUSALEM Ñ Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's top objective in his first talks with a Bush administration preoccupied with Iraq is to restore Israel's primacy as the U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Bush will meet Sharon today.

Aides to Sharon said the new prime minister is confronting competing interests in Washington such as the administration's wooing of the Arab world to maintain an international coalition against Iraq and Egypt's drive to forge a formal strategic alliance with the United States.

Israeli aides said Sharon is concerned that the administration's attempts to recruit an Arab coalition to maintain sanctions on Iraq could come at Israel's expense. Therefore, aides said, Sharon will devote much of his discussions with Bush and his chief aides to restoring Israel's importance as the U.S. anchor in the Middle East.

They said Sharon will avoid frustrating the Bush team and will correspondingly urge the administration not to allow other issues to reduce the alliance.

"The worst thing we can do is come with a new shopping list or specific demands," an aide said.

Sharon is not expected to raise such issues as new aid for Israel or approval of the sale of the Phalcon airborne early-warning system to China.

The Phalcon sale Ñ suspended in July Ñ is seen as a red-flag for an administration that sees China as a strategic threat.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is reviewing U.S.-Chinese military relations and U.S. officials said the current exchanges approved by the outgoing Clinton administration will be limited to three months.

Meeting with Sharon Monday, Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed the need to ease economic pressure on the Palestinians and supported the idea of direct discussions with the Palestinians to rebuild confidence, a senior State Department official said.

The official said Sharon's view was that it is difficult to make progress before the violence stops. As for releasing tax revenues to the Palestinians, Sharon objected that some of the resources would go to people who do the shooting, the official said.

Rumsfeld told Sharon in an hourlong meeting Monday at the Pentagon that "Israel is a small country, and you can't allow yourself to make big mistakes," an Israeli statement said.

Sharon is expected to present to Bush evidence that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is directly involved in terrorist attacks against Israel. Israeli and Palestinian sources said Bush has refused to invite Arafat to Washington until he orders a halt to attacks on Israel.

Aides said Sharon will present Bush with a multi-stage, long-term interim accord with the Palestinians. The prime minister is expected to urge the United States to block international efforts to send a force to the region.

Earlier, Sharon called for the resumption of security meetings between Israeli and Palestinian security officials.

He said he had "ordered the resumption of security discussions with the Palestinians aimed at operations to reduce the violence where possible."

"I want to conduct negotiations, and it's possible, but we can't when there is terror," he said. Sharon also said Israel and the U.S. would cooperate on the "fight against Islamic terorrism" and the "danger of ballistic weapons."

On Sunday, for the first time, Palestinians fired three mortars at Israeli positions near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, close to the Gaza Strip. One Israeli soldier was lightly wounded.

"Israel cannot come to terms with this deterioration [of the situation], " Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said. At the same time, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres called for a cessation of the violence.

Palestinians sources said two Palestinans were injured in other clashes with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.

The daily Haaretz reported Monday that Sharon would be willing to disband three Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip Ñ Netzarim, Morag and Kfar Darom Ñ in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The prime minister's office denied the report.

Also on Sunday, Palestinians opened fire on Israeli troops and an Israeli bus near the West Bank towns of Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah. Israeli troops arrested four Palestinians near the West Bank city of Hebron on suspicion of being on their way to carry out an attack against Israelis. One of the Palestinians is a PA security officer.

On Monday morning, an Israel was killed when Palestinians fired at his car near the Israeli settlement of Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion in the West Bank.

Tuesday, March 20, 2001


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