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<P><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=235416">http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=235416</A></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thursday, November 2</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>PM rejects Jordan's request to rule out `transfer' in
Iraq war </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>By Aluf Benn </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected Jordan's
request that Israel issue a public declaration opposing the "transfer" of
Palestinians from the West Bank. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>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." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Jordanians have refrained from raising the
transfer issue in public due to the assurances they received from Washington,
top Israeli officials speculated.</FONT></P></BODY></HTML>