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Sharon, Abbas trade barbs as shaky truce shows cracks

The honeymoon between Ariel Sharon and Mahmud Abbas is well and truly over, with the Israeli prime minister accusing his Palestinian counterpart of failing to lift a finger against militants and freezing plans to transfer responsibility for security in the West Bank.

In response, Abbas said Israel's position showed that the Jewish state "wants Palestinian blood to flow."

Nearly three months after their landmark meeting in Egypt, relations between the two men are steadily deteriorating, with both sides accusing each other of reneging on their agreements at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit.

In a meeting with two influential US senators on Monday, Sharon delivered his harshest judgment to date on the performance of Abbas who was elected as successor to the Israeli premier's arch enemy, Yasser Arafat, in January.

"Instead of disbanding the terrorist organizations, he is acting to strengthen them," Sharon told Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman.

"He is not willing to fight them and is similarly unwilling to disband their infrastructures. While Abu Mazen [Abbas] is taking steps to maintain the quiet, he is completely avoiding taking significant steps to fight the terrorist organizations."

But Frist praised Abbas Tuesday as a tremendous leader, describing him as a "bold leader" whom the US encouraged to continue to lead "as we proceed along the roadmap."

"He has shown tremendous leadership," said Frist, reading a statement to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

During hour-long talks with Abbas on Monday, the senator said he "commended the president for his strong leadership, for his commitment to the Palestinian people and to his commitment to reforms," both economic and security.

At Sharm el-Sheikh the Israelis agreed to hand over responsibility for security in five West Bank towns. However, the transfer has so far taken place in just two -- Jericho and Tulkarem.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that there would be no further transfers until the Palestinian Authority disarmed wanted militants.

"Terrorism continues," the minister said, highlighting the fatal shooting of an Israeli soldier on Monday during an arrest operation in the northern West Bank, in which a wanted Islamic Jihad militant was also killed. Israel had said it would hold off its pursuit of wanted militants but the arrest operation for a man, who security sources admit was not regarded as an immediate threat, showed the agreement is petering out.

Another feature of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit was an agreement for the early release of 900 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. Although 500 were freed in the summit's immediate aftermath, the other 400 are still behind bars.

In many ways, Abbas's sense of frustration with Sharon is just as acute. Little more than 100 days after taking office, he has overhauled the Arafat-era Cabinet, pensioned off the old heads of the security services and persuaded militant groups to observe an admittedly less than water-tight truce.

But Abbas told a group of politicians and academics in Ramallah that "the Israelis want Palestinian blood to flow. We will never accept that; we will manage security questions in our own way."
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