Brits praise Sharon
Visiting Foreign Secretary Straw says upcoming pullout an opportunity to achieve regional peace
Straw added he is convinced Israel will go ahead with its pullout from Gaza on schedule in August, and called it an opportunity for regional peace.
Briefing journalists in Jerusalem, Straw said he believed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's commitment to go ahead with the withdrawal, despite fierce opposition from the settlers and their backers.
"I'm struck by the determination of the Israeli government to proceed with this, and proceed with it by the date set in mid-August," he said.
‘Palestinians have future in their hands’
Straw said the pullout presents a "great opportunity” for progress toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but also sets challenge.
"I think there's great recognition on both sides of the scale of the opportunities and the scale of the difficulties," he said. "If this is a success, people will see that the Palestinians are capable of running the beginnings of their own state ... they have the future in their hands.”
An aide to Sharon, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said that at his meeting with Straw, Sharon reaffirmed his intention to go ahead with the pullout, but told the visitor that continued Palestinian violence would block progress on any broader peace moves.
The aide said, however, that despite Tuesday's barrage of rocket and mortar attacks on settlements in Gaza and a southern Israeli town, followed by further bombardments
Wednesday, a meeting between Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would go ahead on June 21 as planned.
