Sharon May Be Flexible on Prisoners

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in advance of separate White House visits by the two leaders, signaled flexibility Sunday on the release of Palestinian prisoners.

No specific new agreement was sealed, however, and Israel again pressed its demand for a wide-ranging crackdown by Abbas’ government on Palestinian militant groups.

The two-hour session at Sharon’s official residence in Jerusalem, the first time the leaders have met since July 1, was described by participants as cordial and businesslike for the most part but with one heated exchange, reportedly over the issue of freedom of movement for longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Neither Sharon nor Abbas spoke to reporters afterward, and the two did not appear before the cameras for a public handshake, as they have in the past.

“It wasn’t a calm, easygoing encounter -- it definitely was a tough talk,” said an Israeli Foreign Ministry official. “We don’t see eye to eye on all issues, but it is still a positive atmosphere.” Nabil abu Rudaineh, an aide to Arafat, called the meeting “difficult but important.”

Sharon, possibly seeking to help Abbas extricate himself from what has been a running feud with Arafat, did not rule out the possibility of allowing the Palestinian Authority president to leave his West Bank compound, according to Palestinian officials.

Arafat has been confined to his half-wrecked headquarters in the city of Ramallah for more than a year and has pressured Abbas -- whom he appointed and has the power to fire -- to constantly make the case to Israel for his freedom of movement.

At his White House meetings with Abbas on Friday and Sharon the following Tuesday, President Bush is expected to try to speed up implementation of the American-backed peace initiative known as the “road map.”

Heading into the U.S. talks, the Palestinians have made it clear that among their top priorities is progress on the prisoner issue.

While the freeing of some of the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails is not specifically mandated by the road map, the Israeli government understands it to be a crucial confidence-building measure, an Israeli official said.

“We are determined to move ahead with this,” he said.

Abbas’ government has been under pressure from both Arafat and the militant groups to extract concessions from the Israelis on the freeing of the 8,000 prisoners the Palestinians say Israel has in custody. Israel puts the number at under 6,000.

Sharon told Abbas that Israel would hold internal talks this week aimed at paving the way for the release of 350 to 450 prisoners. Some of those might be released while Abbas is in Washington, with more let go upon his return, an Israeli official said.

Sharon’s government is holding out the possibility of larger-scale releases later, officials from both sides said.

Israel has also quietly yielded to Palestinian demands that members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad be among those freed, although Sharon’s government insists that no one who was directly involved in the killing of Israelis will be released.

Sharon’s Cabinet had voted two weeks ago to exclude Hamas and Islamic Jihad members from any release, drawing a furious response from the two groups. Both threatened to abandon the cease-fire they unilaterally declared June 29, which has stayed in force despite scattered violence.

Israel says the militant groups are using the hiatus to rearm and regroup. In the meeting with Abbas, according to Sharon’s office, the Israeli leader demanded “immediate and definite action to dismantle the terror organizations.”

Hours before Sharon and Abbas met, Israel’s defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, told the Cabinet that Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip were stocking up on homemade Kassam rockets and digging deep tunnels under the Egyptian border to smuggle weaponry.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the prisoner issue, Abbas refused to accept from Sharon a list of several hundred prisoners slated for release, lest he be viewed as having settled for too little.

The two sides instead agreed that the Palestinian minister of prisons would meet soon with the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service to go over the names and finalize the releases.

After Sharon and Abbas’ previous meeting, Israeli troops staged pullbacks in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem. At Sunday’s session, the Palestinians appealed for more troop withdrawals.

Under the road map, Israel is to gradually hand over Palestinian towns and cities its troops have encircled and occupied during nearly three years of fighting. Israel says, however, that Palestinian security forces must take responsibility for keeping order in any area it vacates.

Sharon’s political opponents, meanwhile, renewed accusations Sunday that his government has made only cosmetic attempts to dismantle illegal outposts of West Bank settlements.

Lawmakers from the left-leaning Meretz Party, who toured the outposts, said only two of the 15 sites that Sharon’s government had promised to dismantle were gone.

In the meantime, settlers have established new outposts -- typically a small cluster of makeshift buildings meant to stake a claim to more land on the outskirts of existing settlements.

“You see them, they are on the ground, and the government is simply lying to the public,” said Meretz lawmaker Mossi Raz.