Duma member criticizes Sharon's plan

Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw Israeli forces and settlers from the Gaza sector with US support may provoke a new crisis of misunderstanding between the sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, according to the chairman of the Duma's International Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev.

As reported by a Rosbalt correspondent, Kosachev said that 'it is not yet clear to what degree the Sharon plan, to which the Palestinian side does not agree, corresponds with the requirements of the 'road map,' which remains the only alternative in terms of a way to regulate the crisis.'

Commenting on US support for the Sharon plan, Kosachev quoted a memorable phrase by Henry Kissinger: 'Israel does not have a foreign policy, only a domestic one.' In Kasechov's view, this formulation can equally be applied to the United States, which draws every international problem into the orbit of its election year campaigning, transforming them into internal political instruments, often at the expense of that same instrument.