Palestinian officials said today they expect a freeze in Middle East peacemaking and an increase in violence under a coalition government taking shape in Israel.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Yasser Arafat, said the Palestinian President would be wary of the coalition likely to stem from an agreement in principle reached yesterday by Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon and outgoing leader Ehud Barak.
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"Forming a government with two ex-generals, Barak and Sharon, at its opposite poles, would freeze the peace process and escalate violence in the whole area," Mr Abdel-Rahman told Reuters. "We do not expect good things from such a government."
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian cabinet minister and peace negotiator, said it was likely that Mr Barak's centre-left Labour Party would start leaning towards the right once it joined forces with Mr Sharon's Likud party.
"What is happening is an actual attachment by the Labour party to Likud policies," Mr Abed Rabbo told Palestine Television.
Labour Party leaders are expected to decide next week whether to join a Sharon-led government.
Mr Barak, 59, is widely expected to become defence minister and reverse his decision to quit politics after Mr Sharon, 72, beat him by a landslide in the February 6 prime ministerial election. Labour's Shimon Peres, 77, is tipped for foreign minister.
"Sharon will not find someone who is better than Barak to provide legitimacy for his suppressive policies, and he will not find anyone better than Peres to whiten the image of that policy to the world," Abed Rabbo said.
Mr Barak said in a statement late last night the unity deal he and Mr Sharon forged was conditional on the completion of the policy guidelines and coalition agreements .