MIDDLE EAST: Amid clashes in the West Bank as Israeli troops removed two small Jewish outposts, and more clashes in East Jerusalem as Jewish families moved into a predominantly Arab neighbourhood, the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mr Ahmed Korei yesterday offered conditional encouragement for Israel's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and firmly condemned suicide bombings, which he said had alienated international support for Palestinian independence, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem
Speaking to the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah, Mr Korei, who has hitherto sent mixed signals about Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan" from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, now said he welcomed the idea - provided it served as a first step toward a co-ordinated plan for a wider Israeli pull-out.
"In principle, we welcome every Israeli withdrawal from any piece of Palestinian land," said Mr Korei. "But . . . it should open the way for the resumption of the peace process and be followed by a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, too."
Ahead of talks today with a visiting Bush administration delegation, Mr Korei also denounced suicide-bomb attacks on civilian Israeli targets, calling them "immoral" .
Mr Sharon is to seek President Bush's backing for his disengagement plan in talks at the White House on April 14th, and will then seek approval for it from members of his own Likud party and from parliament. He envisages a complete Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip, and a much more limited West Bank withdrawal.
Ahead of his US visit, Mr Sharon has ordered the army to dismantle several West Bank "outposts" - barely inhabited small settlements established without his government's approval.
The Israeli government has written to the BBC accusing its Middle East correspondent and Irish journalist, Orla Guerin, of anti-Semitism and "total identification with the goals and methods of the Palestinian terror groups" over a report on a 16-year-old would-be suicide bomber last week.
The complaint said Guerin had portrayed the army's handling of the arrest of Hussam Abdu, who was captured with explosives strapped to his chest, as "cynical manipulation of a Palestinian youngster for propaganda purposes". The BBC said it was looking into the complaint. - (Guardian Service)