CRAWFORD, Aug 6: US President George Bush said on Wednesday that a security wall being built by Israel around the West Bank remains a problem.
The United States wants the security barrier, which has caused new tensions with Palestinians, rerouted and is considering financial sanctions against Israel, according to officials.
Mr Bush told reporters: “We’re talking to Israel about all aspects of the fence. I made it clear, I thought the fence was a problem. And so we’re talking with them.”
He added: “I do believe we’re making progress. The key for a peace to happen is for both parties to assume their necessary obligations and responsibilities, to create the conditions so that people have confidence that people know their lives will be safe and that prosperity can break out.”
ISRAELI MPs: Three right-wing Israeli MPs are planning to demand entrance on Thursday to the Haram al Sharif, one of Islam’s holiest sites which is also revered by Jews, in defiance of a police ban.
Yehiel Hazan, Yuli Edelstein and Inbal Gavrieli, all members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party, will try to invoke parliamentary privilege to secure access to the shrine, the mass circulation daily Yediot Aharonot said on Wednesday.
Israeli police late last month suspended visits to the site by non-Muslims which had resumed several weeks earlier for the first time since the beginning of the intifada in Sept 2000.
The uprising erupted following a controversial visit to the mosque compound by Mr Sharon when he was still opposition leader.
Jews throughout the world are due to commemorate the festival of Tisha B’Av on Thursday. It recalls the destruction of the Temple of Solomon (the first temple) and the Temple of Herod (the second temple), destroyed by the Babylonians in 586BC and by the Romans in 70AD respectively.
The Israeli Supreme Court is also due to pronounce in the next 24 hours on a petition which is submitted every year by the extremist Temple Mount Faithful group demanding permission to symbolically place a foundation stone for a new temple.
The Temple Mount Faithful, which consists of no more than a few dozen members, has been seeking for the past 20 years to build a third temple on the site of the Haram al Sharif. —AFP
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