Sharon eyes more pull-outs

2005-08-29 18:45

Jerusalem - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that Israel would not hold onto all its West Bank settlements, less than a week after overseeing an historic pull-out from parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a television interview to be broadcast later in the evening, Sharon was to say that a final map of the settlements which Israel intended to retain would not be presented until final status negotiations.

But it would not include all of the some 130 enclaves which are dotted across the territory.

"Not all the settlements that exist today in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) will stay," he was quoted as saying by the army radio's website in the interview.

"The definitive map will be presented at the final stage of the negotiations."

A transcript of the interview was not immediately available, but a source in the Channel 10 television network's newsroom confirmed the prime minister's comments.

Israel completed its historic evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements last week.

Sharon has consistently denied any further evacuation plans, while arguing that the pull-out from Gaza would enable Israel to cement its control over large West Bank settlement blocs.

While Sharon's Gaza pull-out has been hugely divisive within Israel, it has won widespread praise from the international community which sees it as an opportunity to breathe life back into the moribund peace process.

However, a suicide bombing in southern Israel on Sunday, apparently to avenge the killing of five Palestinian militants by Israeli troops last week, served as a sharp reminder of the scale of the task ahead.

The bombing was jointly claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad, which both pledged to avenge the killing of five of their members by Israeli troops in a West Bank arrest operation.

- AFP