Officials accompanying Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on his brief US visit are concerned that Bush will press the premier to agree on the deployment of US observers in the Occupied Territories, reported Israel Radio on Monday, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
Sharon arrived in New York and was to travel on to Washington, where he is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with US President George W. Bush at the White House.
According to the radio report, Bush will also press Sharon to begin immediate implementation of the Mitchell report's recommendations, and to agree to a cooling-off period of less than six weeks.
Israel Radio added that a number of Arab states, among them Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, were urging the US administration to pressure Sharon into accepting the deployment of US observers in the Occupied Territories, adding that Arab nations feared that the fragile US ceasefire might otherwise collapse, undermining regional stability.
The US trip is Sharon's second since coming to office in March and underscores the importance the prime minister places on the support of the United States, Israel's number-one ally, and his good relations with Bush.
Sharon's visit comes as his government has increasingly said it is willing to break the June 13 ceasefire negotiated by CIA Director George Tenet, that has failed to stop the bloodshed.
Sharon will be looking to reap some political benefits for sticking to the ceasefire, as he is under mounting pressure at home from settlers and hardliners to resume attacks against the Palestinians.
In London, Sharon and his British counterpart Tony Blair held brief talks Sunday on implementing the Mitchell report recommendations to help end the ongoing “violence,” said reports.
During the talks, Blair spoke of the importance of using the Mitchell report as a basis for future peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, a Downing Street spokesman said, cited by AFP.
Sharon "reaffirmed Israel's willingness to implement the Mitchell report," a senior Israeli official told AFP.
The report, drawn up by an international panel led by former US senator George Mitchell, calls for a ceasefire followed by a cooling off period and then confidence-building measures, including a freeze on new Israeli settlements, before a resumption of peace talks.
Sharon also made it clear that it was necessary to "step up pressure on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to obtain an end to the “violence” so that peace can be established in the region," the official said.
The Downing Street spokesman said that Blair and Sharon had "a good discussion" and "each listened to the other respectfully."
Sharon also highlighted the threat posed by weapons of massive destruction in Iraq and Iran, while Blair praised Israel's restraint following the recent deadly Palestinian suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv night club.
Earlier, another Israeli official condemned a BBC documentary on Sharon's alleged role in massacres committed at the Sabra and Shatilla camps in Lebanon in 1982.
"It is biased, anti-Israeli and perhaps even anti-Semitic" and is "part of the battle being waged against Israel," he told AFP.
The BBC program was not raised during the meeting between Blair and Sharon, an Israeli official told AFP.
The documentary, screened June 17, suggested Sharon should be held responsible for war crimes for his role in the massacres.
"Any eventual judicial proceedings against Sharon will not prevent him from traveling wherever he wants across the world," the Israeli official said.
He said reports circulating in the Israeli press that after the program was shown, Blair had held doubts about whether he should meet Sharon were "without basis."
Sharon was defense minister in 1982 when Israeli forces invaded Lebanon and allowed their allies in the Lebanese Christian militias to massacre up to 2,000 people in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps.
He resigned after a 1983 Israeli inquiry concluded that he had failed to act to prevent the massacre.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, CNN reports that Palestinians have killed approximately 112 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 458 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded, and over 500 killed.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
