Posted on 10/23/2002 9:40:59 AM PDT by truthandlife
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to raise some objections to the US "road map to Middle East peace" when he meets with Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns who is due in Israel on Wednesday.
The plan, supported by the Quartet of US, the UN, Russia and European Union, envisages establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005, in three stages with a series of target dates to be met in the interim, including the goal of Palestinian implementing democratic reform.
Both Israel and the Palestinians feel the plan, is too vague on crucial points. The plan has not been made public, though officials have revealed some details.
Israel said it would be required to withdraw troops from parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the first stage, without guarantees that the Palestinian security forces would do more to prevent attacks on Israelis.
"The test of performance is being applied to Israel, but not to the other side," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Sharon.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians need stronger US guarantees regarding the timetable and implementation, including international monitors.
Meanwhile, a source close to Sharon told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday that "the prime minister needs to make sure that there will be no progress from one stage of the plan to another until previous stages are fulfilled."
"There have to be tests of performance, not dates," the source added.
Sharon wants to make sure Israel will not be asked to make concessions before an end to Palestinian terrorism and incitement, the source went on. Israel also wants to ensure that the proper mechanisms will be set up to decide when the Palestinians have adequately fulfilled stages in the plan.
Both sides received the US draft proposals last week.
Burns arrived in Israel Wednesday and is due to meet with Israeli security officials and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
He is scheduled to meet with Sharon on Thursday as well as with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian officials. Burns has no plans to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Peres said Burns will listen to comments and report back to the Bush administration before a final version of the plan is presented in December.
Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath told The Associated Press that the first phase, from November this year to April 2003, would include a truce, cessation of violence and an Israeli pullback to positions held before two years of violence erupted.
The second phase would be the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders sometime between May and December.
Gissin said Israel would make no concessions to the Palestinians until all violence stops, but if it did, "it will be possible to accept" a provisional Palestinian state.
In the final phase, Shaath said, the sides would negotiate a peace treaty covering the tough issues that sank the previous round of peace talks, including permanent borders, Jewish settlements and control of Jerusalem.
The goal would be an agreement in the middle of 2005, resulting in a full-fledged Palestinian state.
Burns has been on a regional tour in search of support for the peace plan. After talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, Burns condemned Monday's Palestinian suicide bus bombing in northern Israel in which 13 Israelis were killed.
"Yesterday's terrorist attack against a civilian bus in northern Israel, claimed by a Palestinian group with offices here in Damascus, was a reprehensible act," Burns told reporters.
"It does severe damage to Palestinian interests and aspirations, it cannot be tolerated by anyone who genuinely is interested in peace," he said.
He called on both sides to exercise restraint in order to help advance toward a Palestinian state and broader regional stability.
"If we are to succeed in ending occupation, building two states, and resuming progress toward comprehensive peace, it is critically important to stop the violence that has done so much to undermine legitimate Palestinian aspirations," Burns said.
"There has been far too much suffering and bloodshed on both sides, and both sides have an obligation to make it stop."
Assad, whom Washington wants to cut ties to Hizbullah and radical Palestinian groups like Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, said Washington's first step should be to end the "genocide" of Palestinians by US-ally Israel.
"The US talk of a Palestinian state is insufficient, so long as it fails to intervene rapidly to stop the genocidal war Sharon is launching against the Palestinian people," Assad said in a statement.
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