Israeli unilateral plan “a recipe for disaster”
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Quriea has said Israel’s unilateral peace plan is a recipe for disaster.
Mr Quriea told Israel’s Maariv newspaper that under Ariel Sharon’s new “go-it-alone” plan: “The conflict would continue, fires would burn, terror would increase and no one would gain. It would be a bad mistake to force a settlement on us. We will not accept it. The world will never accept it.”
Mr Quriea see the new initiative as a smokescreen to seize large chunks of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Cautiously welcoming the mooted plan to unilaterally dismantle “a considerable amount of settlements” in the area, he said: “If Sharon wants to remove the settlements, fine.
“But you cannot build a fence on our land, put us into cages like chickens and hope for the best. It will cause a disaster.”
Separately, six Palestinians were killed yesterday in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, after Israeli 20 armoured vehicles entered the area.
The Palestinian premier called on his Israeli counterpart to immediately return to the negotiating table.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh in New York.
Mr Powell also met with Ami Ayalon, a former head of Shin Bet, the Israeli security service.
Mr Powell plans to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom a Friday morning.
