RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY, 2 November 2007 — Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad confirmed yesterday that he will be working with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on trying to carry out the first phase of the dormant road map peace plan. The US security coordinator in the region, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, is to join the two in the effort.
The US-backed road map was launched in 2003 and envisioned the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005. It consists of three phases, with the two sides gradually moving forward in meeting their obligations. However, the plan never got off the ground because Israel and the Palestinians failed to meet even the initial requirements.
In the first phase, the Palestinians are to declare an end to all violence and take action against militants, while Israel has to freeze settlement expansion, dismantle dozens of illegal settlement outposts and ease Palestinian movement.
Fayyad said yesterday that the three have not started working yet, but said implementing the first phase of the road map will be key to the success of the US-hosted Mideast conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November or December.
Meanwhile, Hamas plans to promote hard-line Palestinian opposition to President Mahmoud Abbas’ upcoming peace conference with Israel by convening alternative events to the US-hosted parleys, the Islamist group said yesterday.
Abbas, whose secular Fatah lost a civil war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in June, is expected to hash out Palestinian statehood ideas with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US-allied Arab leaders in Annapolis, Maryland, by year’s end.
Abbas’ vision of a state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, alongside the Jewish state, is anathema to Hamas. Many Palestinians also suspect Abbas will compromise on core demands regarding the rights of their refugees and Jerusalem’s status.
In Tel Aviv, Olmert praised what he described as Abbas’ determination to reach an accommodation despite Hamas hostility. “I know better than most how dangerous the terrorists are, how dangerous Hamas is, how unyielding they are, how unsupportive they are of the peace process,” Olmert said in a speech.
In another development, Israel’s former Education Minister Shulamit Aloni yesterday said that Barak and former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz should be tried at the International Court of Justice at The Hague for committing “crimes against humanity.”
Aloni, also a leftist leader, slammed the defense minister over the punitive measures he introduced in the Gaza Strip: “Collective punishment is an inhumane move. Ehud Barak is the most dangerous person in the State of Israel, because of his character, because he’s a man of war, and because of his arrogance.” Aloni made the remarks in an interview with the Arab newspaper Ma Al-Ahdath.
