Sharon puts Washington on the spot

The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, went out of his way to embarrass the divided US administration yesterday, openly thanking the Americans for scuttling the proposed UN investigation of Palestinian deaths in the West Bank town of Jenin.
His remarks were made only hours before he met George Bush in the White House.

There are sharp differences between Israel and the US about the role of Yasser Arafat and Saudi Arabia in future peace negotiations.

The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, played an important part in setting up the Jenin mission, in response to Palestinian claims of a massacre. It collapsed last month, because of Israeli opposition, before it even reached the West Bank.

Addressing the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish American pressure group, Mr Sharon hinted heavily that the Bush administration had ultimately helped block the inquiry. "No nation in the world has the right to bring Israel to court," he said.

"I would like to thank the American administration and its leadership that helped us, understood us, and supported us to get out of this trap."

The speech put the administration in an awkward situation by suggesting that the US had acted privately to thwart a mission it supported in public.