Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday any negotiations with Syria must start from scratch as he pushed ahead with a controversial plan to disengage from the peace process with the Palestinians. Questioned about the possibility of a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967 and annexed in 1981, Sharon said any negotiations with Damascus âwill start from zeroâ.
| "We're done making offers. It's their turn to make offers. We'll consider them, if we feel like it." |
Sharon refused to go back to the position adopted by his Labour Party predecessor Ehud Barak envisaging a retreat from nearly all of the Golan.
| That was the proposal the Syrians used for toilet paper... |
Barak had, however, insisted maintaining control over Lake Tiberias with a presence on a narrow strip of land on the eastern bank. Syria has been demanding a resumption of negotiations âat the point where they were stoppedâ in January 2000.
| "We've... ummm... reconsidered." |
At the beginning of December, Syrian President Bashir Al Assad called on the United States to support renewed negotiations with Israel so as to normalise the two neighboursâ relations. âNegotiations should be resumed from the point at which they had stopped simply because we have achieved a great deal in these negotiations,â Assad told the New York Times. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said in the aftermath of Assadâs interview that the offer to revive talks was encouraging but insufficient and set several preconditions.
| "We're tired of preconditions. We're tired of making one-sided compromises. I know it sounds drastic, but we're going to hold these bastards to the standards we'd expect of a civilized state." |
Sharon, meanwhile, was pushing forward with his controversial âdisengagement planâ from the Palestinians by holding first talks with the general he has tasked with its execution. The prime minister was expected to meet with General Giora Eiland, from the militaryâs general command, after yesterdayâs weekly cabinet meeting, public radio reported. Eiland is being placed in charge of a special department of planning from January 15 that would be directly answerable to Sharonâs office. He will preside over a special commission which would also comprise representatives from the army, defence ministry, foreign ministry and the justice ministry. No date has yet been fixed for the commission to start its work. Sharonâs disengagement plan has been widely criticised, with the Americans warning that any unilateral measures must not impede the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
| He's tired of the carrot, so he'll whack them with the stick for awhile. Good idea. I just hope they don't stop too soon. |
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