Targeted Assassinations

How will targeted killings affect the peace process?

In a HARDtalk interview broadcast on 29 March, Tim Sebastian speaks to Ehud Olmert, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, about his country's targeted killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Israel's assassination of the wheelchair-bound Hamas leader has drawn criticism internationally, and raised the political temperature in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Ehud Olmert defended the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, saying the aged leader was "a man who has been responsible directly and consistently for more bloody killing of innocent people than any other person other than Yasser Arafat."

He said that Yassin had financed and personally approved terrorist attacks.

Olmert said that targeted assassinations were an essential part of the worldwide "battle against terror".

"Roadmap"

Targeted assassinations of militants was only one part of Israel's strategy, Olmert explained. He said that Israel was pursuing a policy of unilateral withdrawal having tried unsuccessfully to bring the Palestinians on board. Olmert accused Palestinian representatives of "intransigence" and choosing "terror" over "serious negotiations".

[He was] a man who has been responsible directly and consistently for more bloody killing of innocent people than any other person other than Yasser Arafat. Ehud Olmert

Olmert said:

"We tried to make a meeting with Ahmed Qurei to no avail for the last half year. He didn't find time to meet with our Prime Minister, but I'm sure maybe in the near future he will have time and we will be happy to meet him."

Gaza withdrawal

At the beginning of February Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made the surprise announcement that Israeli
forces would pull out of Gaza. Many commentators have doubted this will in fact take place.

But Olmert told Tim Sebastian that preparations for this plan are going ahead, and that Israel will pull out of Gaza completely "within a few weeks, maybe a couple of months."

Speaking of his government's road map commitments he said:

"We are going to dismantle many authorised and legal settlements, both in Gaza and the West Bank."

HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 03:30 GMT, 08:30 GMT, 11:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT, 18:30 GMT and 23:30 GMT

It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 04:30 and 23:30