AL QUDS, Aug 22: Beleaguered Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was persisting on Sunday with his plans to form a new government including the main opposition Labour party, bolstered by Washington's backing for the expansion of West Bank settlements.
Sharon was humiliated by his right-wing Likud party last week when members voted for a motion against the premier inviting Labour into government - a move seen as vital to gain a parliamentary majority for his plans to pull troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip next year.
But in a letter to opposition leader Shimon Peres, Sharon made clear that he is determined to include his Labour party in a new coalition despite the Likud vote. "I am determined to implement the disengagement plan and to enlarge the government to include the Labour party," Sharon wrote in the letter which was published by the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.
Sharon, currently on holiday at his ranch in the southern Negev desert, lost his majority in the 120-seat Knesset back in June when traditional right-wing supporters deserted him over what they see as the "forcible transfer of Jews."
His decision on the eve of last week's Likud vote to approve construction of 1,000 new homes in the West Bank was widely interpreted as a bid to placate opponents of his so-called disengagement plan, which will also involve the uprooting of settlers from four small settlements in the northern West Bank.
The US-backed roadmap peace plan requires Israel to freeze all construction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including natural growth. But a US diplomatic source confirmed on Sunday a report in the New York Times that Washington had now adopted "a covert policy decision toward accepting natural growth".
US officials declined last week to condemn Sharon's decision to approve the 1,000 new homes in four of the largest West Bank settlements. "It looks like the official policy is now catching up with the reality," the diplomatic source said, adding that it should not be interpreted as carte blanche to expand the settlements.
President George W. Bush has enthusiastically endorsed the disengagement plan, and is anxious to help Sharon in his standoff with Likud hardliners, but the Palestinians reacted angrily to the shift in US policy.
"The American position is harmful to the peace process and the roadmap and ... encourages the Israeli government to accelerate its aggressions and its war against the Palestinian people," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's top advisor, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat declined to criticize the US government but said that settlement activity in direct contravention of the terms of the roadmap would only serve to wreck the chances of a peace deal.
"The American administration has to commit Israel to stop all settlement activity, including natural growth," Erakat said. "The American administration has to explain this commitment to the Israeli government and ask them to commit themselves to it because it will only contribute to destroying any possible political settlement."
The roadmap aims for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 but has made next to no progress since its endorsement by both sides last year. While the Palestinians say that Israel is failing to meet its commitments by allowing settlements to expand, Israel accuses the Palestinian leadership of failing to crack down on militant groups behind anti-Israeli attacks. Israeli officials have declined to comment on the New York Times report.
ARAFAT: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is looking to bring his former prime minister Mahmud Abbas back into the fold nearly a year after he quit in a power battle, senior officials said on Sunday.
A leading member of the mainstream Fatah movement said that he had been asked by Arafat to hold talks with Abbas about a return to the political frontline, with other sources tipping him to play a mediating role in attempts to persuade armed factions to accept a new ceasefire.
"I was assigned by President Arafat to speak to Abu Mazen (Abbas's nom de guerre) and he has no objections," Fatah central committee member Sakher Habash said. "There are ongoing arrangements to call for a meeting of the executive committee of the PLO which Abu Mazen will attend," Habash added.
Abbas resigned last September, four months after being appointed Arafat's first ever prime minister, in frustration at his failure to persuade Arafat to relinquish control of the myriad Palestinian security services.
Although he has not attended any meetings of the main Palestinian institutions, he remains the official number two of the PLO and a member of the Fatah central committee. Other sources said that Abbas had also met his successor, Ahmed Qorei, about a possible return. -AFP