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Sharon Met Senior Palestinians in Secret
Israeli media disclosed that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held secret talks with two senior Palestinian officials before and after last month's general elections. Channel One of the Israeli public TV said Sharon held his first meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's PLO deputy, Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, before his Likud party won the general elections last month. A second meeting was held on Wednesday, February 5, at Sharon's ranch in the southern Negev desert with the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmed Qorei, also known as Abu Ala. Everybody's got an alias... I think I'll use "Captain Bloodblister." Whaddya think? The channel also said that Israeli Chief of Staff Dov Weisglass and U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, also attended the talks. According to the channel, Weisglass held talks with Palestinian Interior Minister Hani al-Hassan Wednesday. It cited sources close to the government as saying more such meetings were expected in the near future. The talks, which apparently came about under pressure from the U.S. administration, centered on the possibility of a ceasefire and efforts to strengthen the Palestinian Authority. They want Yasser and crew to hang on for awhile, since Hamas has decided they'd like to be in charge. They'd just like it to happen without Yasser. Yasser, of course, doesn't want to go... According to Israeli reports, Sharon's secret talks were aimed at improving the climate in the Arab world for U.S. efforts to gain support for a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. On January 30, 2002, Sharon met with Arafat's economic adviser, Mohammad Rashid. Sharon has said several times he was holding secret talks with the Palestinians, despite the fact his government and the United States have actively tried to have Arafat sidelined. Probably any substantive talks they have will concern getting Yasser lined still further to the side. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-02-08 |
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