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PM Ariel Sharon (right) listens to Ariel's mayor Ron Nachman during the Prime Minister's visit to the West Bank settlement of Ariel, some 50 kilometers east of Tel Aviv at a meeting on Thursday. (AP)
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07/22
Ynetnews |
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07/22
Haaretz |
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 22, 2005 |
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Before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met for breakfast and talks Friday at Sharon's private ranch in the Negev, Sharon, in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro expressed his desire to expand the West Bank settlements of Ariel and Maale Adumim, a move in direct conflict with the U.S.-brokered "road map" policy.
During a visit to Ariel on Thursday (the same day Rice arrived in Israel), Sharon said: "I came to check how we can expand the town... this (settlement) bloc will forever be an inseparable part of the State of Israel and enjoy a contiguous territorial connection to it."
"There must be no mistake about it," he continued. "We will forever sit in Maaleh Adumim.
"The southern section of the territories, Judea, will never be disconnected from the northern section, Samaria."
"The bible is more powerful than any political document," Sharon said. "We mustn't forget that the territories, and particularly Judea and Samaria, are the cradle of Judaism."
The prime minister also noted that the West Bank security fence currently under construction does not mark the final-status border between Israel and the Palestinians.
At the same time, in an interview with Israel Radio on Friday afternoon, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that recent statements made by the Bush administration for the first time express an acknowledgement by an American president that permanent borders will be determined according to facts on the ground, i.e. established settlement blocs.
Shalom's statements specifically referred to the settlements of Ariel, Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim, whose residents amount to tens of thousands.
Shalom added that he firmly believes a majority of the Israeli public agrees that these settlements should not and will not be evacuated.
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