Shalom says fence 'is reversible,' if deal reached with PA

Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Shalom said Israel had pulled back similar fences on the borders with Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon and could do it again.

"If we reach agreement with the Palestinians and we agree with each other to move the fence, it's moveable," said Shalom, who is attending the World Economic Forum.

The barrier, which will ultimately stretch 650 kilometers, is one-third complete and has become a major sticking point in efforts to restart negotiations with the Palestinians who see it as an attempt by Israel to draw a border without negotiations.

Shalom said he had informed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier Friday of Israel's willingness to move the fence. But he also said that the barrier - a complex of walls, barbed wire fences and guard towers - had been successful in reducing terrorist attacks in Israel and should exist throughout the negotiating process so that attacks could not be launched.

"The fence is reversible. Human lives are irreversible," Shalom said.

Asked whether Israel would be willing to move the fence back to the border before Israeli advances in the 1967 war, Shalom said, "We won't even need it anymore. We don't like this fence. We didn't build the fence from 1967 to 2002."

He said that the Palestinians had made a precondition of making changes in the fence before negotiations with Israel resumed but should move now to the negotiating table to discuss the issue.

However, Palestinian officials said they wanted assurances - passed along through the Americans - that they would come away from any new talks with some progress on major issues, such as the fence.

Even without negotiations he said Israel was willing to take some steps. He said Israel was ready now to dismantle settlement outposts that been illegally built and to make new openings - even tunnels - so that Palestinians could travel back and forth to jobs in Israel or to tend Palestinian fields that have been cut off by the barrier.

"Israel would like to resume the negotiations immediately," Shalom said. "We have been waiting for more than three months now for the first meeting to be scheduled between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Abu Ala. But unfortunately Abu Ala is not willing to schedule this first meeting, which we believe would put the peace process on track."

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), has complained bitterly about the Israeli barrier and has demanded that Israel take it down. However, he has not made that a precondition for a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon.

Qureia has said he wants assurances from Sharon that a meeting will produce some improvement in the lives of ordinary Palestinians. Such improvements could include an easing of travel restrictions or an Israeli pullback from some Palestinian cities, Qureia has said.

"I'm asking everyone to ask Prime Minister Abu Ala to resume the negotiations, because I believe that through negotiations it will be much easier for us to narrow the gaps," Shalom said.

He said he has been taking advantage of the meeting in Davos to press Israel's position with his contacts.

"I had a meeting with the foreign minister of Qatar, with the son of [Egyptian] President [Hosni] Mubarak. I will have meetings with the foreign minister of Jordan and the foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority in a panel that we are going to have on Sunday morning."

He said he was trying to schedule meetings with officials of "some other Arab countries," but he said he had had no meetings with Pakistani officials, despite recent Israeli reports of secret contacts between the two countries.

Opposition leader Shimon Peres met Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf by accident in a hallway encounter at the World Economic Forum on Thursday. An Israeli official said the meeting had not been planned.

"I believe that there is a dramatic change in the Arab world after the war in Iraq, after the capture of Saddam Hussein, after the statement that was made by [Libyan leader Muammar] Gadhafi," Shalom said. "The Iranians agreed to sign the additional protocol that will give more free access to the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency."

Weisglass to Rice: Annexation not part of disengagement plan
Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan does not include annexing territory, his bureau chief told U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on Thursday, according to Israel Radio.

The radio reported Friday that the chief of staff of the Prime Minister's Bureau, Dov Weisglass, told Rice that Israel has no annexation plans.

Also Friday, a top Sharon aide said the prime minister may meet with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington next month to discuss the road map peace plan and unilateral steps Israel is considering if the U.S.-backed initiative fails.

No date has been set for the meeting, said Sharon's adviser, Raanan Gissin. "It is possible that the prime minister will go to Washington in February," Gissin said. Bush administration officials did not immediately confirm the report.

Weisglass, who presented Rice with the disengagement plan in Washington on Thursday, also answered her questions about the West Bank fence. He committed to easing Palestinians' lives by establishing more passageways in the security fence to allow greater freedom of movement, Israel Radio reported.

Weisglass outlined the plan for unilateral withdrawal from the territories to a "security line" that includes the evacuation of some settlements.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/386345.html