JERUSALEM, 11 June 2004 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon forged ahead with his Gaza pullout plan yesterday as G-8 leaders called for the Mideast quartet to meet soon in a bid to rekindle the moribund peace process. Meeting in Sea Island, Georgia, leaders of the Group of Eight urged the diplomatic quartet to meet in a bid to advance the peace process.
They welcomed Israeli plans to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank and pledged to “restore momentum” to an international road map aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old current conflict. To further these goals, they called on the quartet of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union “to meet in the region before the end of the month.”
A statement said the quartet should “engage with Israeli and Palestinian representatives and set out its plans for taking forward in practical terms its declaration of May 4” welcoming the Israeli moves as part of the peace process. It said it hoped the “disengagement initiative will stimulate progress toward peace in the region.”
The road map, which envisions a series of confidence-building measures leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005, was still the cornerstone of peace efforts, the statement said.
The G-8 leaders also promised to join in efforts to restore momentum on the road map, enhance humanitarian and economic conditions among the Palestinian people and build democratic, transparent and accountable Palestinian institutions.
Meanwhile, a leaked report from the Israeli committee for overseeing the evacuation indicates that Jewish settlers in settlements slated for evacuation might be able to apply for compensation from the beginning of August.
Settlers would be able to leave the 21 Gaza settlements and the four enclaves in the northern West Bank until August next year after which the areas would be regarded as military zones.
Under the provisional timetable, all the settlers should be evacuated by the end of September 2005.
A source close to Sharon confirmed that the leaked timetable was “an option” which “may be subject to changes.”
Meanwhile, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said yesterday that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is to hold talks with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders later this month.
According to Ibrahim Nafei, an adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Suleiman will meet with Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to discuss the Israeli withdrawal and Egypt’s proposals for a Middle East cease-fire.
And Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath told Palestinian radio that French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier would travel to Ramallah at the end of the month where he would meet with Arafat. Barnier is also set to meet with Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei on what will be his first visit to the Palestinian territories since taking office in April.
In the southern West Bank, meanwhile, four Palestinians were arrested near Bethlehem because their houses will be on the Israeli side of the vast barrier being built around Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said.
Residents of Walajeh, the four hold West Bank ID papers and will therefore become illegal aliens once the barrier is completed, leaving part of their village on the Israeli side, Walajeh’s mayor told said.
And a Jewish extremist settler, who was held in administrative detention for nine months on suspicion of involvement in a militant cell, was released from prison to house arrest yesterday.
Noam Federman, a former leader of the banned anti-Arab group Kach, was arrested as part of a continuing investigation into militants cells which are thought to be behind the deaths of eight Palestinians in a spate of attacks across the West Bank.
Meanwhile, two Palestinian teenagers were killed yesterday when Israeli troops opened fire in separate incidents in the West Bank, Palestinian security and medical sources said.
Hani Kandil, 13, was fatally shot in the head when troops raided the northern town of Nablus while Shaher Hani Takatka, 18, was killed when soldiers opened fire after stones were thrown at them during a protest in Beit Fajar, near the southern town of Bethlehem, the sources said.
