Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas held an indirect exchange of views Sunday night, starting with Abbas telling Israel's Channel 1 that, after the anticipated announcement this week of a formal cease-fire by all the Palestinian factions, he would be ready for full-scale diplomatic talks.
Sharon was meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan Sunday night iand told Annan that there would be no progress on the road map peace plan until the Palestinian armed factions are completely disarmed, rejecting Abbas' proposal that a cease-fire would be enough to allow the start of final-status agreement negotiations.
According to Haaretz, Sharon told Annan that the PA must also end "incitement" in mosques and eliminate anti-Israeli incitement in PA textbooks before Israel would agree to peace negotiations. Sharon said that there has been a drop in incitement, but that it it was not enough.
"God willing, we will go there [to Cairo] to declare a cease-fire, for all the Palestinian factions to declare this cease-fire, for the sake of giving the peace process a chance to begin and to return to its normal path," Abbas told Channel 1 in an interview. He said that the truce could continue "as long as the situation moves in a positive direction."
