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Sharon Offers Goodwill Gesture to Abbas

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - In a gesture to PA prime minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas, Israel will allow nine Gaza Palestinian Legislative Council members - barred for the past year from traveling to the West Bank because they have "blood on their hands" and pose a security risk - to make the trip to Ramallah to vote on the new PA cabinet. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz will head the team that will decide when the new Palestinian government has taken steps warranting reciprocal Israeli action. Based on past experience, Mofaz said, "We will be meticulous in standing by the security requirements." A senior diplomatic official said there would be no Israeli moves until the new Palestinian government takes genuine action to end terror and incitement, collects illegal weapons, and dismantles the terrorist infrastructure. "We will know real action when we see it," the official said. Mofaz told Sunday's cabinet meeting that in the last week there were 63 warnings of terror attacks inside Israel, and when that number declines significantly, Israel will know real Palestinian action is being taken. The road map was discussed in the cabinet on Sunday, with Sharon's bureau chief Dov Weisglass briefing the ministers on his recent trip to Washington, where he presented the U.S. administration with 15 Israeli reservations to the plan. Weisglass said that when the U.S. does release the road map, expected immediately after Abbas and his government are sworn into office, it will only be a draft, and both Israel and the Palestinians will be able to make comments on it.
2003-04-28 00:00:00
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