Barak outlines last-resort division

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak yesterday outlined how Israel might unilaterally separate from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip if peace talks fail to bring a deal.

He said his priority was to achieve a peace agreement and that he would continue negotiations within weeks of Israel's prime ministerial election next week if he were re-elected.

But contemplating the scenario if no deal is reached in the next few months, Barak said he would opt for separation.

"We will have to turn towards the initiated security disengagement," he said, using a term for unilateral separation.

"We'll do our best to do it in a proportional way, in a measured way without closing the door."

Israel would add on blocs of Jewish settlements - illegal under international law - to its territory, pull isolated settlements into these blocs and establish a security zone in the West Bank's Jordan Valley.

Barak said such a process would take two to three years.

"We'll find the appropriate time to make it [settlement blocs] a part of Israel and we'll find the appropriate time to bring most isolated settlements into these settlement blocs and we'll establish a wide security zone along the Jordan River," he said.

The Israeli Government has been weighing its options but has said little about what it would do if the Palestinians unilaterally declared an independent state.

Barak has failed to reach an outline for peace with the Palestinians before the election and opinion polls show him trailing far behind right-winger Ariel Sharon.

Under pressure for failing to quell a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Barak has returned to a formula of "we are here, they are there" if he decided to separate the two populations.

- REUTERS

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