AMMAN, 2 September 2003 — EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday the internationally backed Middle East road map was the only solution for peace in the region, where the situation was “not optimistic.”
“I don’t think that optimism is the word to be used today to qualify the situation” in the region, Solana told reporters following talks in Amman with Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb. “The situation is not good. It is a critical situation but I do think that we will be able to overcome it,” Solana said, stressing that his talks with Abu Ragheb focussed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“In any case the road map is the only programme which is at this point on the table. We have to maintain it and do the utmost to make it work,” Solana added.
Solana, who arrived in Jordan from Israel on the third leg of a tour that started in Iran, said a meeting on Thursday of the Palestinian Legislative Council, or parliament, was “very important.”
“We will see what happens in the Palestinian assembly in a couple of days,” he said, adding that Israel and the Palestinians must continue working on the principle that the “the road map is the only solution” for peace between them. The European Union is one of the four sponsors of the road map, which is intended to bring an end to nearly three years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the creation of an independent Palestinian state in 2005.
For his part Abu Ragheb warned against any plan by Israel to re-occupy the Gaza Strip, saying such a move “will further complicate the security situation” between Israel and the Palestinians, official Petra news agency reported. During his talks with Solana, the premier insisted that Palestinians must “close ranks and work as one team to support the government of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.”
He also urged the United Nations to “send an international force” to guarantee stability between Israel and the Palestinians.
Solana was due to meet Jordan’s King Abdallah later in the day before returning to Israel for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. His spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, told AFP in occupied Jerusalem that Solana was likely to urge Israel to resume contacts with the Palestinians which were frozen after the Aug. 19 Jerusalem bus bombing. He will also warn Sharon of the impact on the peace process of “extra-judicial killings” of wanted militants, Gallach said.
Solana arrived in Israel late Saturday from Iran where he gave “friendly advice” to Tehran to accept unconditional snap International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear sites, or jeopardize trade relations with European Union.
He is also due to visit Syria before wrapping up his tour today.
