Agencies  --  Arab News

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 24 February 2004 — Israel will not negotiate with the current Palestinian leadership because it has failed to meet all its obligations under the US-backed road map for peace, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying yesterday by public radio.

Although Sharon did not specifically refer to his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qorei, a statement by his office said a planned preparatory meeting for talks between the two had been canceled due to a deadly blast in Jerusalem Sunday.

Sharon, who was addressing Parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committee yesterday, also said he intended to present his disengagement plan from the Palestinians to US President George W. Bush during a trip to Washington in late March, the radio said.

He said the extent of any Israeli withdrawals under the plan, which is still being drawn up, would depend partly on the American view. Sharon has said that Israel would act alone to separate from the Palestinians if a US-backed road map remains stalled.

Officials close to the prime minister have said that if he wins US backing then the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip could begin by the end of the year.

The preparatory meeting was canceled because of the bombing of a Jerusalem bus Sunday that killed eight people, apart from the attacker, according to the statement by Sharon’s office.

Sharon’s chief of staff “Dov Weisglass informed his Palestinian counterpart that in light of the circumstances following yesterday’s abominable mass murder in Jerusalem, there is no basis to hold such a meeting at the present time”, the statement said. Weisglass and his counterpart Hassan Abu Libdeh were to have met to plan talks between Sharon and Qorei.

The hawkish Israel premier said last December he would unilaterally disengage from the Palestinians if they did not respect their end of the bargain under the international Middle East peace roadmap, a plan that aims to stop Middle East violence and create a Palestinian state by 2005.

Peace negotiations have stalled in recent months, while Sharon and Qorei have failed to meet, although the two both said they were ready to hold talks. During his yesterday address, Sharon was criticized by two extreme right-wing MPs about his refusal to submit his disengagement plan to the government before presenting it to Bush.

By submitting his plan first to the US president, from whom he hopes to win backing, “he wants to present the government with a fait accompli,” MP Arieh Eldad, who sits on Sharon’s ruling coalition, said in a radio broadcast. Eldad threatened to vote with the opposition, who were to present three censure motions against the government.