GAZA CITY, 11 November 2002 — The Palestinian leadership officially welcomed yesterday a Mideast peace “road map” drawn up by top world officials but said it wanted “a binding timeline” to ensure it is implemented.
The Palestinian Authority also said it wanted international observers to be deployed in the territories to oversee its implementation.
“It is not possible to go forward as long as settlements are expanding on our land,” said the leadership statement carried by the official WAFA news agency after a PA Cabinet meeting in Ramallah.
“It is not possible to allow the peace process to depend on one individual or group that has no interest in peace or security,” the statement said, referring to the hard-line Israeli caretaker government in power until elections in early 2003.
The “road map” provides for a Palestinian state by 2005, and for a de facto Palestinian state to be established next year with provisional borders. It was discussed with Arab governments by US envoy William Burns during a regional tour last month.
The leadership also said it wanted guarantees the plan will succeed, and “extends its hand” to any Israeli political party that wants peace.
US Mideast envoy David Satterfield is expected in Israel today and later in the Palestinian territories to discuss the “road map” — drawn up by the “quartet” of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Earlier yesterday, the PA Cabinet provisionally welcomed the road map but said it needed to hold further consultations with Arab states before giving a definitive response, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abderrahman said the Cabinet’s response was “positive,” but said that a condition should be attached stipulating that there can be “no progress in negotiations without an international presence, both security and political, on the ground.” Abderrahman said the Cabinet’s full response would be conveyed to Satterfield.
Other officials said the Palestinians would also insist that elections in January would be presidential as well as legislative, and reject US demands that Arafat appoint a prime minister.
The outline says only that legislative elections should be held next January. The PA insists that presidential polls be held at the same time. Israel and Washington want to see Arafat dumped, and fear early presidential polls could see him given a new mandate.
The Cabinet was also expected in its response to shun calls for a prime minister, a move aimed at circumscribing Arafat’s presidential powers after Washington accused him of failing to prevent anti-Israeli attacks.
UN Middle East coordinator Terje Roed-Larsen said in Damascus last week he would attend a meeting on the road map today in Tel Aviv, along with Satterfield and EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his new defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, yesterday to tone down criticism of the peace plan, public radio in Jerusalem said. Mofaz, a hard-liner, was invited at this week’s Cabinet meeting by another minister to comment on the US-backed “road map”.
But before he could speak Sharon stepped in and cut him off, telling him instead to give straight run-down of the security situation, the radio added. Mofaz has criticized the peace plan, while Sharon has said he agrees to the broad principles of the plan.
