Nation & world briefing
Hardliners force Sharon
to dissolve parliament
Michael Matza
and Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minis
ter Ariel Sharon dissolved his nation’s
parliament on Tuesday, forcing elec
tions as early as February and plunging
the close U.S. ally into political uncer
tainty as the Bush administration pre
pares for war in nearby Iraq.
It was unclear how or whether the
dissolution would affect President
Bush’s effort to restrain the Israeli
government from taking harsh mili
tary steps against the Palestinians
that might preclude Arab coopera
tion in a possible war.
Sharon failed to form a governing
coalition with ultra right-wing par
ties that demanded a hardline stance
against the Palestinians. Without
their support, he could not form a
Cabinet that would win parliamen
tary approval.
Dissolution of the parliament
throws into motion a range of political
forces that make any prediction of the
election’s outcome — and the result
ing impact on approaches to peace in
the region—difficult at best.
Right-wing parties took an uncom
promising stance with Sharon in part
because they believe they stand to gain
in an election. Sharon initially tried to
avoid early elections because, while
personally popular, he faces a strong
right-wing challenge within his own
Likud party. Meanwhile, the forces
calling lor peace initiatives with the
Palestinians may stand to gain within
the left-leaning Labor Party.
Several Israeli political analysts
said early elections are likely to favor
Likud, costing Labor and other liber
al factions a handful of Knesset seats.
The reason, they said: Average Is
raelis have shifted right as a result of
Palestinian violence.
Sharon was forced to seek new
coalition partners following the Oct.
30 departure from his government of
the Labor Party when Labor balked
over funding for Jewish settlements
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, ter
ritories included in proposals for a
Palestinian state.
Labor Party leader Binyamin Ben
Eliezer pulled his faction out of the “uni
ty” gpvemment — unity between left
and right-wing parties — that Sharon
had been leading for 20 months.
The ultra-rightists had said they
would join Sharon’s government only
if he stiffened his demands on Pales
tinians and rejected a U.S. sponsored
“road map” for peace that sets a
timetable for negotiations and in
cludes an eventual Palestinian state.
“Elections are the last thing this
country needs right now,” Sharon
said. But “I will not throw away the
good of the country for narrow-based
party political considerations.”
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
U.S. compromises on Iraq
Warren P. Strobel
and Diego Ibarguen
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — The Bush ad
ministration won agreement from
France and other key doubters Tues
day on a new United Nations resolu
tion demanding that Iraq scrap its
nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons programs, a deal clinched
in a series of high-level phone calls by
Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Approval of the resolution appears
likely to delay* perhaps for several
months, any U.S.-led military action
to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hus
sein, as the world waits to see whether
Baghdad will comply with the world
body’s disarmament demands.
While officials cautioned that last
minute glitches are possible, the deal
appears to end, at least for now, the
disagreements with other world pow
ers and within the U.S. government
over how to deal with Saddam.
The United States plans to present
the resolution Wednesday at the
United Nations, and senior U.S. offi
cials predicted that after weeks of
wrangling, it would win backing from
all of the 15-member U.N. Security
Council except for Syria.
The American position was final
ized Monday afternoon at a pivotal
White House “principals’ meeting”
that was attended by Powell, Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Vice
President Dick Cheney, National Se
curity Adviser Condoleezza Rice and
Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Powell’s view that the United States
should continue to work diplomatical
ly and come up with a plan its allies
could accept prevailed at the meeting,
several officials said. All of them spoke
on the condition of anonymity.
Cheney and Rumsfeld asked for a
few minor wording changes but
abandoned their months-long effort
to press for a U.N. resolution that
Saddam was unlikely to accept and
that would authorize military action
without further debate.
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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