Peres Says He Will Fire Sharon : But Cabinet Is Divided on Chance of Compromise

Prime Minister Shimon Peres, angered by attacks on his peacemaking policy with Jordan, told his Cabinet tonight that he plans to fire Ariel Sharon, the outspoken minister of trade and industry.

But the nearly three-hour meeting ended without Peres’ giving Sharon a letter of dismissal, said Communications Minister Amnon Rubenstein. Cabinet ministers were divided on whether a compromise will eventually be reached to avert a crisis that could topple Israel’s coalition government.

Israel television predicted that a decision will not be reached before Thursday.

Earlier, a Labor Party official said Peres had rejected a partial apology from Sharon and handed him a letter of dismissal today.

Secret Deal Charged

It would take 48 hours for the dismissal to go into effect, and sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said something could be worked out by then.

Peres convened his Cabinet tonight to discuss the firing of Sharon, who had accused Peres of making a secret agreement with Jordan’s King Hussein and of being “weak and spineless.”

Rafi Edry, head of Peres’ Labor Party faction in Parliament, said on Israel radio that a compromise formula had been agreed to by Peres. But he said the compromise proved unsatisfactory because Sharon had refused to include in his apology an expression of confidence in the prime minister and his policies.

Sharon apologized for any personal attacks on Peres but stood by his criticism of Peres’ overtures to Jordan, including acceptance of an international forum for peace talks.

“If things I said were understood as a personal slight to the prime minister, Shimon Peres, I hereby express my apology to him,” Sharon said on Israel radio.

Stands by Criticism

But Sharon went on to say he stood by his criticism of Peres’ policies, and Israel radio quoted Peres as telling the Cabinet that he could not accept an apology on such terms.

In an earlier meeting today with Likud bloc leader Yitzhak Shamir, Peres accused Sharon of breaking a law requiring Cabinet ministers to accept collective responsibility for government policy, the aide said.

He asked Shamir to agree to the dismissal, but the foreign minister objected, the aide said.

Sharon’s dismissal without Shamir’s approval could prompt Likud to pull out of the government and end the joint-rule agreement under which the two ideologically opposing parties have governed Israel for the last 14 months.

Sharon, a war hero who was forced to resign as defense minister in 1983 over the massacre of an estimated 700 Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatilla camps outside Beirut, had delivered a scathing attack on Peres’ policies Monday during an address in Haifa.

He accused Peres, who has proposed direct peace talks with Jordan within the framework of an international forum, of failing to exclude the Palestine Liberation Organization from any such talks.

He also accused Peres of pursuing secret contacts with Jordan without Cabinet approval despite terrorist attacks directed from Amman and of being soft on Egypt after the Oct. 5 slayings of seven Israeli tourists in the Sinai by an Egyptian soldier.