Posted on 05/04/2004 10:24:55 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS -
The United States and three peacemaking partners called Tuesday for "responsible and accountable" Palestinian leaders who would crack down on terrorists and welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s proposal to withdraw from Gaza.
The statement, issued after a 2 1/2-hour meeting at the United Nations (news - web sites) hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), drew Palestinian criticism and Israeli praise.
The Palestinians' U.N. observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said the United States dominated the deliberations, which issued a statement that amounted to nothing more than "mumbling that could mean anything."
By contrast, Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, said the Quartet — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union (news - web sites) and Russia — had focused on "the real problem" of terror and a need for change within the Palestinian movement.
"Cracking down on terrorism and reforms are imperative for any meaningful political dialogue," Ayalon said in a telephone interview.
"Hope is in short supply," Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said, reflecting on the stalemated search for Middle East peace. Cowen emphasized that a solution cannot be imposed by well-meaning outsiders but must be reached by the parties, the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Cowen and Javier Solana, the EU's senior diplomat, said at a news conference that the intent of the Quartet is for Israel to withdraw from all territory it captured from the Arabs in the 1967 Middle East war. That would mean not only Gaza, which Sharon is prepared to yield, but all of the West Bank and part of Jerusalem.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), however, defended President Bush (news - web sites)'s assurances to Sharon last month at the White House that Israel would be entitled to retain some Jewish settlements on the West Bank in an overall agreement with the Palestinians.
He said Bush had not abandoned his support for establishing a Palestinian state, and the Arabs and their supporters should recognize that Sharon's proposal would begin a process of Israelis' giving up settlements.
The statement issued by the Quartet said Sharon's plan offered "a rare moment of opportunity in the search for peace in the Middle East," and land evacuated by Israel should be taken over quickly by the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites). The Quartet also promised to work with the World Bank (news - web sites) to ensure the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians are met.
At the same time, and with emphasis, the Quartet said it was ready to work with "a responsible and accountable Palestinian leadership committed to reform and security performance."
The three-page statement approved by the participants said reform within the Palestinian movement and a well-timed election process were necessary.
Palestinian security services should be restructured and retrained to bring order to the Palestinians, to end terror attacks on Israel and to dismantle terror groups in Palestinian-held areas, the statement said.
In a joint news conference with his diplomatic partners, Powell said Sharon's proposal, which the prime minister may revise in a bid to gain approval in Israel after it was turned down by his Likud political party, was "an opportunity that ought to be seized."
"This takes us somewhere," Powell said. "If we seize this opportunity, settlements will be evacuated, and that settlement property will be converted to use by the Palestinian people."
The Quartet's statement stressed, meanwhile, that Israel should link any pullback to the Quartet's "road map" for peacemaking and with establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel was admonished to ease roadblocks, to stop demolishing Palestinians' homes and to "exert maximum efforts to avoid civilian casualties" in repelling terror attacks.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants burn mock coffins representing Israel in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) refugee camp of Rafah during a joint rally with members of the Popular Resistance Committees, in support of the Kissufim crossing attack.(AFP/Said Khatib)
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites)(R) sits across from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)(L) and Javier Solana of the European Union (news - web sites) (3rd from L), as they take part in a meeting of the Quartet of Middle East mediators at UN Headquarters in New York, May, 4, 2004. Middle East mediators tried to revive their stymied peace plan after the twin setbacks of Israeli conservatives rejecting plans to pull out of Gaza and U.S. assurances to Israel that angered the Palestinians. (Mike Segar/Reuters)
Election process???? What a joke -- vote for Arafat or your loved ones will see your head on a pike! Yet the UN will no doubt approve of such an election and pretend that the majority of Palestinians support Arafat, ignoring the death threats.
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