Nazir Majally • Asharq Al-Awsat

GAZA CITY, 30 July 2003 — Palestinians condemned Ariel Sharon after the Israeli prime minister pledged to push on with a controversial security barrier across the West Bank after talks with President George W. Bush in Washington yesterday.

The Palestinian Authority had been looking for a softening of the Israeli line on issues such as the barrier after their own Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas impressed Bush during his audience at the White House on Friday.

But Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr told reporters: “He (Sharon) gave no single positive sign at all.”

“He is not stopping the (Jewish) settlements and he is going on with the wall,” the minister added in reference to a security barrier being constructed by Israel across the West Bank.

“This means there are big obstacles in the way of the peace process and the implementation of the road map” peace plan, said Amr. Sharon pledged at the White House during talks with Bush to continue building what Israel refers to as a security fence, even though Bush said during talks with Abbas on Friday that it was undermining confidence in the peace process.

Palestinians regard the barrier as an attempt to set in stone the boundaries of a future state but Israel insists it is merely intended to prevent infiltrations by militants planning attacks from the West Bank.

“The security fence will continue to be built with every effort to minimize the infringement on the daily life of the Palestinian population,” said Sharon.

Amr said: “There is a difference between Bush’s position and Sharon’s position about the wall. I think that President Bush made an effort about the wall but Israel did not pay respect to him.”

Bush said he understood the fence was a “sensitive issue.” He pledged to continue to talk with Sharon “on how best to make sure that the fence sends the right signal, that not only is security important, but the ability for the Palestinians to live a normal life is important as well.”

The radical Palestinian group Hamas said the outcome of the meeting was proof that Abbas’ government should “stop betting on the Americans.”

Hamas political leader Abdelaziz Rantissi also criticized comments by Bush that the rise of a Palestinian state was dependent on defeating the threat of terror groups.

“He has run away from past statements,” said Rantissi whose group is regarded as a terror organization by the US.

“He has put obstacles in the way of a Palestinian state because he needs the support of Zionist groups in Washington in the next election,” he said.