By Reuters and Haaretz Service
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Tuesday that dismantling settlements on land Palestinians seek for a state under a U.S.-backed peace plan is "not an issue on the horizon".
Sharon also said that Jews will continue to live in Shilo and Beit El under Israeli sovereignty. "If you ask me whether in Beit El there will not be Jews," Sharon told the Jerusalem Post, "no, Jews will live there."
Asked if they will continue to live in Beit El and Shilo under Israeli sovereignty, he replied, "Do you see a possibility of Jews living under Arab sovereignty, I'm asking you, do you see that possibility?"
The "road map" plan calls for Israel to stop expanding settlements in the West Bank and Gaza as part of a series of confidence-building steps under which Palestinians would crack down on Palestinian militants targeting Israelis.
Sharon told the newspaper that all Israeli governments had pursued settlements in some form in the past even during periods of peace diplomacy. "But in my mind this is not an issue on the horizon right now," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held talks with both sides at the weekend to coax them to start implementing conciliatory measures under the road map, but won no concrete action on key issues such as curbing violence and settlements.
Sharon insisted there was no U.S. pressure on Israel to halt construction. "There is no pressure from anyone. It is only pressure from the Jews on themselves," he told the Post.
In the interview with the Post, Sharon said that two large settlements in the heart of the West Bank, Ariel and Emmanuel, would be on the Israeli side of a barrier now under construction to keep out Palestinian militants. This would mean that significant parts of the West Bank would be west of the barrier - on the side that would be connected to Israel proper.
Sharon, whose right-wing coalition opposes scrapping settlements or granting Palestinians a state by 2005 as the road map envisages, will meet U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House on May 20 to discuss objections to the plan.