Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief of staff Dov Weisglass is to meet his Palestinian counterpart Hassan Abu-Libdeh Wednesday to prepare a planned summit next week between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
The meeting comes following Sharon's announcement that he plans to evacuate all settlements in the Gaza Strip and three in the West Bank within about two years. Qurei said Tuesday that Sharon's plan to evacuate settlements in the Gaza Strip was "good news." He added he wants to see "deeds, not words. We want to see them leaving the whole Gaza Strip, leaving Gaza as liberated Palestinian land and leaving us to concentrate on their withdrawal from the West Bank."
Meanwhile, Israel's far-right National Union party leader and minister of transportation, Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that actions spoke louder than words, but declared that "The moment that the cabinet takes a decision on evacuating settlements, at that moment we will find ourselves on the outside."
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
