RAMALLAH, 22 May 2003 — Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, in a telephone call with George W. Bush, asked the US president to put pressure on Israel to accept the peace road map, a Palestinian official said yesterday.
Abbas “asked the US president to work to secure Israel’s acceptance of the road map so as to be able to start implementing it immediately,” Information Minister Nabil Amr said. Also in Tuesday’s call, Bush “encouraged the prime minister to press ahead with reforms and security (measures), while underlining his own commitment to the road map and determination to help reach a political solution”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Army returned to the northern Gaza Strip yesterday a day after ending a five-day reoccupation of the zone.
Some 20 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers as well as three bulldozers moved in the morning back into the area of Beit Hanun, which the army reoccupied last Thursday to hit militant groups and prevent rocket attacks on nearby Israeli targets.
The bulldozers razed more farmland in the area and fresh shooting broke out.
The New York Times said yesterday that Bush was considering his first trip to the Middle East, possibly around the time he attends a G-8 summit in France in early June, and that he could hold talks with both Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers.
China’s Middle East envoy Wang Shijie met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday in Ramallah.
After the meeting, Arafat called for “an immediate implementation of the road map” for peace drafted by the so-called quartet of diplomatic players, accepted by the Palestinians but not fully endorsed by Israel.
Wang, who arrived on Sunday already held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and members of the Israeli Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee.
China has voiced its support for the road map, a blueprint published by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, and paving the way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
Israel said earlier this week it would boycott foreign diplomats and politicians who met Arafat, whom it accused of colluding with militant groups responsible for a wave of bombings.
But an official said the ban would not apply to already arranged meetings with the Palestinian leader.
And on the ground, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians yesterday near the town of Ramallah.
Rasmiya Arar, 35, and Ramel Arar, 20, were shot dead in the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, near Salfit, between Ramallah and Nablus, PA sources said.
