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Israeli Foreign Minister on Sharon-Abbas Talks, Gaza Security

Posted on: Saturday, 8 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has said that Israel "has no intention of acceding to Palestinian demands" and moving directly to the final-status talks before the Palestinians take action against "terrorist infrastructure". Speaking ahead of the meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas scheduled on 11 October, Shalom described it as important for renewing the negotiations and returning to the road map. He stressed that Israel would not allow Hamas to take part in the legislative elections and that its participation would force the country not to recognize the election result. He said he was against providing the Palestinian security forces with any ammunition or weapons, adding that the lack of ammunition was "just a feeble excuse" for the Palestinian National Authority's unwillingness to honour the Sharm al-Shaykh and road map commitments. The following is excerpt from telephone interview with Silvan Shalom by Anat Davidov, place and date not given, broadcast by Israel radio on 8 October

[Passage omitted on earthquake in south Asia] [Davidov] Let's move on to the political issues now. First, what expectations, if any, do you have from the meeting between [Israeli Prime Minister] Sharon and Abu-Mazin [Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas] scheduled for this week?

"No intention" of moving directly to final-status talks

[Shalom] It is the first meeting, after a very long time, to be held at the summit level. The previous meeting was postponed because it was doomed to failure, and so it was cancelled. There is no certainty that this meeting will go well, but we have to do everything we can to ensure that the meeting is properly prepared and successful. We do not take a meeting between Sharon and Abu- Mazin lightly, and certainly not as something that takes place very often. So, after such a long time, it is obviously important that the meeting help return us to the negotiating table.

[Davidov] In your opinion, does the revival of the [joint] committees signal the revival of political negotiations?

[Shalom] We want to renew negotiations, we want to return to the road map. However, we obviously want to maintain the contingent nature of the road map. We have no intention of acceding to Palestinian demands to move directly to the negotiations on final- stage arrangements, which is what Abu-Mazin wants. He wants to skip the first stage which, from his perspective, is problematic: dismantling the terrorist infrastructures. He probably does not want to fight them - unfortunately.

[Davidov] Not even Hamas?

[Shalom] That's right. I'm talking about Hamas primarily. There is also the Islamic Jihad and others, but Hamas is the largest organization. Not only does he not intend to deal with them, but he is even asking them to join a coalition government to be headed by him. He is proposing that they take part in parliamentary elections. We stated very clearly to all the world leaders, when the prime minister and I attended the UN General Assembly, together with the US president, the British prime minister, the Russian president and others. We told them all: We shall not allow Hamas to take part in the elections. We believe that its participation will force us, and probably the whole world, to reject the results of the elections.

Weapons in Gaza Strip

[Davidov] Are you willing to transfer weapons to the Palestinians at this stage?

[Shalom] Unfortunately, weapons are being freely transferred at the moment, now that we have left the Philadephi road. The Egyptians have not exactly managed to stop the traffic in weapons which, up until then [until Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip], had been carried out through the tunnels. Since we left, the traffic has moved much more freely and has also created an imbalance. We have seen a far better quality of weapons moving in. They include shoulder-mounted missiles and antitank missiles. Obviously, we are quite concerned about this. We hope the Egyptians will ultimately do more. The current situation is clearly an improvement on the first few days, but we still see fairly free traffic of weapons. The fact that the terrorist organizations now have more sophisticated weapons makes the situation more difficult.

"No willingness" to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure"

[Davidov] What about the limited quantity of ammunition we are planning to transfer to the Palestinians?

[Shalom] I never thought this was the right thing to do. We saw what happened after the Oslo accords when they gave them rifles. The rifles were used, even by the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] security forces, to carry out terrorist attacks against us. But, every option should be examined. I do not believe the problem is a lack of ammunition. That is just a feeble excuse. The issue is a lack of willingness to meet their commitments made at Sharm al- Shaykh, at the previous summit, and in the road map: the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructures.

The inability to dismantle the terrorist infrastructures is not the result of a lack of ammunition. It is simply the result of a lack of willingness to make a strategic decision. Arafat made that decision in 1996 when he took strong action to halt terrorist activity, arrested 1,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists, and killed 18 of them. We are not asking the PNA to do that, but we saw that, after Arafat's action, we had almost three years of quiet.

Sharon-Abbas talks

[Davidov] I may be wrong, but I heard that you are far less optimistic than others, after the meeting between [Sharon's adviser Dov] Weissglas and [chief Palestinian negotiator Sa'ib] Urayqat yesterday, about the success of the meeting between Sharon and Abu- Mazin.

[Shalom] No. I didn't say I was less optimistic. I said the meeting must be properly prepared so that it can produce successful results. I said we must do everything we can to make the meeting a success. From out point of view, the success of the meeting depends not only on Israel responding positively to their demands and claims, but also on creating an understanding on the part of the Palestinians that they have to do their share. I think we have made this perfectly clear. We have stated before, during a meeting between the prime minister and Abu-Mazin, that they have to take determined action against terrorism. I believe that if they do we will be willing to make several concessions that will make things easier for them. Our goal is to move forward together towards renewing negotiations. But, negotiations must be renewed under the terms of the road map without skipping any of the stages the Palestinians would like to.

[Davidov] Earlier, you mentioned the meetings you held in New York, and the contacts you made during the UN session. However, you seem to be less involved in the process taking place locally. If you had been more involved in the preparations for the meeting, do you think things would be different?

[Shalom] No. All the current preparations are at the administrative level. That is how it should be. I do not see this as an issue. The real issue is how we see the process moving forward from here. Will the Gaza model be a success? If it is, it will give the process a push forward. If not, our options will obviously be much more limited.

[Davidov] When you talk about the Gaza model, are you referring to further unilateral withdrawals, or just the road map?

[Shalom] If the Gaza model is a success, and the Gaza Strip is quiet and we don't see a repeat of what we saw immediately after the withdrawal, the Qassam rocket fire at Israel, we will be able to work more positively towards renewing the negotiations. If not, we will face an escalating situation of terrorism. Then, obviously, the entire issue of negotiations falls away.

[Davidov] But, are additional unilateral withdrawals an option?

[Shalom] Absolutely not. There will be no unilateral withdrawals. The prime minister made that clear. I believe the decision to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip was a one-time event. The prime minister was the moving force behind it. I accepted it later on in the process. Initially, I felt it was a wrong decision. Ultimately, the government carried out the decision, but there will be no further unilateral withdrawals. This has to be absolutely clear. We are not going to divest ourselves of all our assets piece by piece, without getting something in exchange from the Palestinians. It is not even an option. [Passage omitted]

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

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