MIDDLE EAST: Israel could release jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi if Washington grants clemency to a US navy analyst convicted of spying for the Jewish state in the 1980s, Israel's Army Radio said yesterday.
It said Israel plans to propose the swap for Jonathan Pollard, once acting prime minister Ehud Olmert is sworn in.
Israel would hope to convince the Bush administration that freeing Barghouthi, a senior figure in the once-dominant and pragmatic Fatah movement, would weaken the new Palestinian government under Islamist group Hamas, Army Radio said.
Barghouthi is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for masterminding Palestinian militant attacks. In public, Israeli officials have ruled out his release. US administrations have been similarly firm on Pollard serving out a life term handed down for treason, despite calls for a pardon from Israel and fellow US Jews.
Israeli government officials denied the Army Radio report, which cited sources in Mr Olmert's office and has proven authoritative in the past.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv dismissed it as "speculation".
"The Pollard case is over. He is serving a sentence," said spokesman Stewart Tuttle. "As for Barghouthi, that is something for the Israelis to decide."
Israeli political sources said such a swap was first proposed in 2004 by aides to then prime minister Ariel Sharon, but was rejected outright by mid-level US officials.
Pollard's wife, Esther, noted that clemency for her husband had been floated in the past when the Israeli government needed to rally right-wing support.
Mr Olmert, who succeeded Mr Sharon as head of the centrist Kadima Party in March general elections, plans to follow up last year's Gaza withdrawal by pulling back from some land where Palestinians seek statehood in the occupied West Bank. "This is all about Barghouthi, not Pollard. They want to free Barghouthi," Esther Pollard said. "Barghouthi will go free and Jonathan will stay in prison."