Sharon 'sees opportunity for a breakthrough'

Ariel Sharon appeared to shift ground yesterday by saying he was willing to talk with his adversaries, having earlier spurned all political negotia-tions with the Palestinians until their leadership was reformed – and having declared Yasser Arafat a terrorist, a murderer and an irrelevance.

The Israeli Prime Minister also said, in an interview with Israel's Channel Two television last night, that for the first time he saw an "opportunity for a breakthrough in a diplomatic arrangement". He added that "the Palestinians have arrived at the conclusion that nothing can be achieved using terror".

His comments are likely to be welcomed, albeit with much restraint and caution, in Washington, which wants Israel to calm the conflict, not least because the continuing violence has complicated the Americans' task of laying the diplomatic ground for moving against Iraq.

But they will arouse deep scepticism among most Palestinians, who believe Mr Sharon's long-term intention is to consolidate Israel's presence indefinitely over the bulk of the West Bank. They insist the hard-right premier has no intention of political moves that will take them closer to achieving their goal of statehood. One Palestinian minister, Ghassan al-Khatib, dismissed Mr Sharon's remarks as "nonsense", saying they were "only directed to deceive international public opinion".

Palestinian officials say Israel's massive publicity drive to blame them for the violence is at odds with the activities of its armed forces in the occupied territories, which killed 11 Palestinians last weekend, including two children, despite a sharp drop in attacks on Israelis.

Critics of Mr Sharon noted that his latest pronouncements on peace-making coincided with the expulsion yesterday from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip of two Palestinian relatives of a Palestinian militant. But strategic manoeuvring is afoot. Mr Sharon may meet a senior Palestinian official, after four weeks which, until dusk yesterday, had been without suicide bombings. Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Mr Sharon saying he had agreed to meet an official in the next few days.

Mr Sharon's critics suspect this may be a public relations ploy to counter recent moves by the Palestinians to regain international credibility by making noises suggesting they were ready for a ceasefire, laying the blame on Israel for continuing bloodshed. As Mr Arafat is still in office – and as there is no prospect that Mr Sharon and he will talk directly – there is uncertainty on both sides over the status and significance of talks Israel may hold with any other Palestinian leader.

The plus points Mr Sharon hoped for were undermined by international criticism, from the United Nations, the European Union and America, over the expulsion of two Palestinians to Gaza ordered by Israel's supreme court. Blindfolded and with only a change of clothes and the equivalent of £165 the brother and sister were dumped in the overcrowded, fenced-in and poverty-stricken strip, punished for being related to a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Israel security forces maintain they helped him to mount attacks.

Kifah Ajouri, a 38-year-old painter and decorator, and Intisar Ajouri, a pharmacist, were allowed to say farewell to relatives at a detention centre in the West Bank. They were taken by Israeli armoured vehicle 10 miles south of a gaggle of journalists who had gathered to watch their arrival through the northern entrance to Gaza, and dropped off near a vineyard. Reports said they were found by journalists wandering across farmland and taken to a Palestinian human rights organisation.