Israel announced Thursday it would build new housing in a Gaza Strip settlement, angering Palestinians and raising questions about implementation of the US-backed "road map" plan, after Israel's prime minister returned from a White House summit and top officials from the two sides had inconclusive talks about the next peace moves.
Separate summits in Washington over the past week between US President George W. Bush and the Israeli and Palestinian premiers served to bring out the differences among the sides over the peace plan, and since then, the disagreements have spawned new troubles for the blueprint.
PHOTO: AP
Speaking Thursday, hours after returning from Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that implementation of the first phase of the plan, including a "total cessation of violence," is beginning.
On June 29, Palestinian groups called a limited ceasefire, greatly reducing violence, but Israel is insisting that the violent groups be disarmed in accordance with the road map language. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who met Bush last week, is resisting such a crackdown, fearing a civil war.
Sharon said subsequent phases could not start until all the elements of previous stages are implemented, rejecting a Palestinian demand for a time line for carrying out the plan. The road map has both performance and schedule elements.
Other disagreements linked to peacemaking flared up Thursday, including Jewish settlements, Palestinian prisoners, Israeli control of Palestinian towns and Israel's planned barrier along the West Bank.
Israel opened bidding for construction of 22 new housing units in the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza, Neve Dekalim, angering Palestinians and leading to charges that the move counters the "road map" requirements.
About 2,400 Israelis live in Neve Dekalim, which anchors a bloc of settlements near the Gaza coast.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, criticized the tender. "This is a very dangerous step taken by the Israeli government," he said.
In a statement, the Israeli Defense Ministry said the 22 units were in the settlement's original plan, and their construction would not violate the road map because they reflect natural growth of the settlement.
However, the peace plan states, "Israel also freezes all settlement activity, consistent with the Mitchell report," an international study from May 2001. That report says that Israel "should freeze all settlement activity, including the `natural growth' of existing settlements."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. officials were talking to Israel about implementing the plan. "A freeze is a freeze," he said.
Palestinians demand that all the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza be removed as part of creation of a Palestinian state. The ``road map'' leads through three stages to a Palestinian state in 2005, but beyond the freeze and removal of unauthorized Israeli outposts, it leaves the fate of the settlements for final-status negotiations.
Since the truce declaration, Palestinians have been demanding that Israel release thousands of prisoners. Israel is offering to free a few hundred.
On Thursday, tempers boiled over at a prison in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. About 400 Palestinian inmates rioted, the prison service said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of