Sharon vows to seek peace but big settlements to stay

Sharon vows to seek peace but big settlements to stay
(Reuters)

1 December 2005


TEL AVIV - Israel?s Ariel Sharon, buoyed in the polls after forming a new party for a March election, pledged on Thursday to seek peace with the Palestinians but stood firm on keeping many West Bank settlements.

The Israeli prime minister said his departure from the rightist Likud party last week to create a centrist movement meant he would no longer ?waste time? battling opponents to his strategy for ending the Middle East conflict.

But Sharon, speaking to Israeli news editors, gave little idea how he planned to proceed, except to continue putting the onus on the Palestinian Authority to rein in militant groups before any serious political talks can resume.

Certain to anger the Palestinians was Sharon?s reaffirmation that Israel would never give up large settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank. He also said Israel would keep control of the Jordan Valley, where it maintains a string of smaller enclaves, under any future peace deal.

Sharon further ruled out any more unilateral withdrawals from occupied land after his Gaza pullout in September, which raised peace hopes internationally but also sparked a rebellion against him in the traditionally pro-settler Likud.

?I definitely plan to make every effort to promote the peace process starting with a political agreement,? Sharon said. ?I would be prepared to make painful concessions ... (but) on issues of security there will be no compromise whatsoever.?

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