Sharon outlines disengagement plan

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday outlined his plan for a unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians and said it would entail a military redeployment and a relocation of some settlements.

Addressing the closing session of the Herzliya Conference, a high-level annual meeting of top officials, army officers, academics and businessmen organized by the Interdisciplinary Center there, Sharon said Israel would unilaterally disengage from the Palestinians unless they begin implementing the "road map" for peace that the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations have presented. The "road map" outlines a series of steps that should lead to a permanent agreement. Both sides have accepted that plan.

"Obviously, through the disengagement plan the Palestinians will receive much less than they would have received through direct negotiations set out in the 'road map,'" he said.

"I do not intend to wait for them indefinitely," Sharon declared.

If they continue "to drag their feet and postpone implementation of the 'road map' and ... continue to disregard their part in implementing the 'road map' -- then Israel will initiate the unilateral security steps of disengagement from the Palestinians," he said.

The disengagement would see a redeployment of Israel Defense Forces along "new security lines and a change in the deployment of (some) settlements, which will reduce as much as possible the number of Israelis located in the heart of the Palestinian population.

"We will draw provisional security lines and the IDF will be deployed along them. Security will be provided by IDF deployment, the security fence and other physical obstacles," he said.

He did not provide figures, names, or locations of the settlements that would be removed or a timetable for doing so.

The peace process has been stalled for months, ever since former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, resigned.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia cautiously welcomed the unilateral actions Sharon announced. Qureia told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah that if the plan "means an Israeli army withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories, we, of course, welcome it. But if it means to create new facts on the ground that contradicts Palestinian national rights and the legal international resolutions, no one of course would accept it."

He said that it is better "for us to agree on all remaining and outstanding issues, and reach a permanent agreement that ends the conflict and not take unilateral actions."

Official Palestinian sources said that there are intensive contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials for a meeting that is expected to be held soon between Qureia and Sharon. They said that if the upcoming meeting is held on Sunday, a Palestinian-Israeli summit is expected by early next week.

Commenting to reports that negotations behind a possible truce between Israelis and Palestinians brought the Palestinian side U.S. guarantees to pressure Israel, Qureia denied such a deal.

"I don't know if there are guarantees, but what I can read and understand is that there are U.S. and European understandings for reaching a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians," said Qureia.

He said that if a cease-fire is reached between the two sides, "I would prefer a mutual and comprehensive cease-fire based on specific issues, understandable and based on mutual agreement."

Not all Palestinians welcomed the plan. Founder and spiritual leader of Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said it means nothing and Sharon just wants to deceive the world.

"Whoever wants to achieve peace with the Palestinians, should first end the occupation, give the Palestinians their freedom, dismantle Jewish settlements and end all types of military aggression against our people," said Yassin.

Yassin's remarks were made at his Gaza City house while sitting on his wheelchair and listening to Sharon's statement on television together with a number of senior Hamas leaders.

Yassin stressed that his movement "will continue resistance and the intifada until the end of the occupation."

In his speech, Sharon said he plans to remove settlements that would anyway be evacuated in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. "Settlements which will be relocated are those which will not be included in the territory of the state of Israel in the framework of any possible future permanent agreement," he said.

"At the same time, in the framework of the disengagement plan, Israel will strengthen its control over those same areas in the land of Israel which will constitute an inseparable part of the state of Israel in any future agreement," he added.

Sharon confirmed the "road map" is the only political plan that both sides -- and the majority of the international community -- have accepted.

"We are willing to proceed towards its implementation," he said.

The Palestinians must uproot terror, he stressed. "Only a transformation of the Palestinian Authority into a different authority will enable progress in the political process," he added.

This disengagement plan "will be fully coordinated with the United States," he added.

Israel will restrict also construction in established settlements, he added.

"There will be no construction beyond the existing construction line, no expropriation of land for construction, no special economic incentives and no construction of new settlements," he said.

Opposition leader, former Prime Minister Shimon Peres of the Labor Party said he was "very disappointed." Peres asked: How can Sharon talk of coordination with the United States on stopping work on the "road map" and the building a new fence, when the United States opposes the security fence Israel is now building?

Nor has Sharon announced a set timetable. The plan "is all algebra, general formulations," he added.

Turning to the planned restrictions on settlement activity Peres noted that has been promised before and should be implemented.

Hard-liners were troubled. The chairman of the Council of Settlers in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Benzi Liberman, said they would do "everything to replace" a prime minister who initiates a transfer of Jews and an uprooting of settlements. Knesset member Arieh Eldad of the hawkish National Union said they would quit the government if Sharon removes a settlement.

Likud leaders were split. Public Security Minister Zahi Hanegbi insisted, "There will be no Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria (meaning the West Bank). It is illogical. It's not going to happen." The Likud's Central Committee opposes Palestinian statehood, he added.

Hanegbi said he expected Sharon to keep the settlement towns of Ariel, Emanuel, the Jordan Valley, the Etzion Bloc and "the heat of Samaria."

But Minister Zippi Livni, also of Sharon's Likud Party said the government had already accepted the "road map." The security fence Israel is building in the West Bank would leave some settlements outside them.

"We've started the process of partitioning (the land)" she concluded.

(Reported by Joshua Brilliant in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza.)