Posted on 11/20/2004 8:51:33 PM PST by yonif
During meetings Monday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to ask Israel not to disrupt the January 9 elections in the Palestinian Authority.
Sources say Powell, who is due to arrive in the region Sunday night, will ask Israel to remove roadblocks and lift travel restrictions, withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities and limit its military activities. Israel is expected to accede to the American requests.
Sharon has already agreed to permit Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to participate in the elections.
Senior PA officials told the European Union's Middle East envoy, Javier Solana, during meetings in the territories over the weekend that the success of the elections depends on achieving unity and avoiding violence, as well as Israel's willingness to open roadblocks and improve the quality of life in the territories, and to stop preventive actions and targeted killings.
Palestinians said they believed they could achieve an internal cease-fire quickly and that Israel would respond by stopping its preventive operations.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Saturday that during Powell's upcoming visit, he will ask that the administration commit itself to the establishment of a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.
Qureia, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and caretaker President Rawhi Fatuh are slated to meet U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns on Sunday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, an American official said.
The Palestinian leaders are planning to use the meetings with Burns to set an agenda for contacts with Powell, said a Palestinian official.
Qureia said Saturday he objected to recent statements by U.S. President George W. Bush from which it could be understood that Bush intends to work toward the establishment of a Palestinian state by the end of his second term in office in 2008.
"We will ask the Americans for a clear commitment to the original timetable for the road map and about the link between disengagement and the road map, so the state can be established next year. Talk of establishing the state by 2008 will allow Israel to continue building settlements and swallowing more Palestinian land, which will damage the peace process," Qureia said.
Qureia also called on Saturday for the United States to pressure Israel to release jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, as well as other imprisoned Palestinian leaders, and said he would raise the issue with Powell.
"They [the Americans] can help us by pressing the Israelis to release them," he said.
Qureia met in the West Bank city of Ramallah with the U.S. consul-general in East Jerusalem, David Pierce, on Saturday in order to prepare for Powell's meeting Monday in Jericho with the Palestinian leadership.
Palestinian sources say the Monday meeting will lay the groundwork for a renewal of talks with the U.S. after PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's death and ahead of a visit by Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice in a few weeks.
Is Powell going to demand Israel take down the security wall too?
Israel disrupt Palestinian elections; that's a good one.
I think the Palestinians are up to the task of disrupting their own elections.
Powell is a major source of constant embarassment. Thank God he'll be doing it from the private sector soon.
From all that I have read, Israel is supportive of elections on the West Bank. What the hell is up with Powell anyway?
By the end of 2005? These people can't even swear off mass murder in the streets of Israel, but Powell wants concessions from Israel.
This angers me.
Does Israel need to let a few Jews get killed to make the PA elections work?
Why is Powell still talking? Doesn't he know his resignation was accepted?
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