The road map that the United States, the Palestinians and Israel committed themselves to less than a week ago was never going to be an easy proposition, but it has turned out to be much harder to implement than expected. Just two days after President George Bush, Prime Ministers Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon pledged their sincerest efforts to bring the latest Middle East peace initiative to fruition, Hamas suspended truce talks. In a tit-for-tat response, Abbas ruled out dialogue with the group. The third blow was inflicted yesterday when four Israelis were killed in an ambush. As if all these impediments were not enough, Sharon returned from Aqaba to face growing anger from settlers over the proposed removal of some of their settlements.

The call to cut off talks represents a reversal, because immediately after the Aqaba summit Hamas leaders said they were still willing to talk with the prime minister even as they rejected his call for an end to the armed intifada against Israel. Just as serious, Abbas had predicted that he would reach a cease-fire agreement with all the activist Palestinian groups within three weeks.

Success of the road map depends to a large extent on Abbas’ ability to rein in such groups. It has been Israel’s repeated demand all along: No withdrawal of any sort from the occupied territories until a reciprocal measure is taken by the Palestinian leadership, with all activists stripped of their weapons and brought under control.

The Palestinian infighting has, if briefly, taken the spotlight away from Sharon and his intentions vis-à-vis the road map. For his part, Sharon said Israel would begin immediately to remove some of the “unauthorized” Jewish outposts erected in Palestinian areas in the West Bank. The problem is that Sharon has done more than anyone else to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza which is ample reason why his intentions are being doubted. It is against this background that Palestinians are receiving Sharon’s declarations with the doubt and cynicism that they deserve.

This much should be remembered: The outposts which Sharon said would be removed are mainly sparsely populated hilltop settlements whose evacuation may not be enough to provide the self-contained future state which the Palestinians demand. And the removal of other long-established Jewish settlements would lead Sharon, until now a champion of settlement building, into direct conflict with the right-wingers within his coalition government.

Delivering on their commitments was always going to be the hardest part for the two men.