Jordan Times
Sunday, October 7, 2001
Qallab: Sharon remarks irresponsible
AMMAN (AFP) — Information Minister Saleh Qallab on Friday denounced comments by hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about the United States appeasing Arabs at Israel's expense as “rejected and irresponsible.”“The comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are rejected and irresponsible and indicate narrow-mindedness and hostility towards peace,” Qallab said in statements carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
“The Israeli prime minister must realise that Palestinian rights must be recognised, and above all their right to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
“He must also know that Israel must make this commitment sooner or later,” Qallab added.
The White House has likewise condemned as “unacceptable” Sharon's comments.
Sharon said on Thursday that Bush should not, in the name of his efforts to build an anti-terrorist coalition after the Sept. 11 attacks in the US, try “to appease the Arabs at our expense. We won't accept it.”
Sharon called on the Western democracies “not to commit again the terrible mistake made in 1938 when European democracies sacrificed Czechoslovakia for a temporary solution.
“Israel will not be Czechoslovakia,” he warned.
Sharon was alluding to the 1938 Munich conference, when European powers yielded to German dictator Adolf Hitler and allowed him to take over part of Czechoslovakia.
“Sharon's attacks against the Arabs and comparing them to `Hitler' will backfire on him and indicate an imbalance and failure to realise the situation in the region,” Qallab said.