Thursday, November 2
PM rejects Jordan's request to rule out `transfer' in Iraq war
By Aluf Benn
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected Jordan's request that Israel issue a public declaration opposing the "transfer" of Palestinians from the West Bank.
Recently, Jordanian officials have displayed concern about the possibility that Israel might exploit an American attack on Iraq by expelling masses of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan. Senior Jordanian officials have raised this concern in talks with Israeli and American counterparts. The Jordanians asked for assurances that Israel will refrain from implementing transfer policies.
Jordan's Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher brought up the concern last September at the United Nations, in talks with former foreign minister Shimon Peres. Muasher asked for a formal Israel announcement renouncing transfer. The Jordanians asked that the declaration come directly from the prime minister.
Peres promised Muasher that he would speak with Sharon about the issue. The Jordanian request was delivered through other channels as well. The request reached Sharon, but he rejected it.
Sharon refuses to be involved in any discussion about transfer, explained a source who was involved in contacts about the Jordanian request. "He took exception to the Jordanians raising such a suspicion about him."
The Americans decided to deliver the Jordanian message to Israel at a high official level, explained a top Jordanian official. President George Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice raised the issue in their meetings with Sharon in Washington last month.
William Burns, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, who visited the region last October, told Israeli officials that Jordan's leaders had expressed fears about mass expulsion of Palestinians during a coming war against Iraq.
The U.S. assured the Jordanians that no transfer scenario is in the offing, the Jordanian source says. Yet officials in Amman still hope that Israel will issue a formal declaration. The Jordanian official quoted remarks made by Israeli officials in favor of transfer, and cited poll results that indicate a measure of public support for the idea.
The Jordanians have refrained from raising the transfer issue in public due to the assurances they received from Washington, top Israeli officials speculated.
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