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| Friday, 5 December 2003 |
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Geneva accord creates tensions between US Israel JERUSALEM, Thursday (Reuters) Contacts between key members of the U.S. administration and authors of a symbolic Middle East peace pact rejected by the Israeli government have raised tensions between Washington and Jerusalem. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of Israel's staunchest U.S. advocates, are due to meet the Israeli and Palestinian architects of the pact in Washington on Friday. Uri Zaki, a spokesman for Israel's leftist Yossi Beilin, one of the pact's authors, confirmed the scheduled meetings to include Beilin and former Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. Israel's rightwing government has rebuked Washington for the Powell meeting, but the prime minister's office declined immediate comment on the session with Wolfowitz. Powell told a news conference in Morocco that he was required to examine all peace ideas, even from opposition figures. "The more we talk about peace, the better. I welcome ideas from whatever the source," he said. On Tuesday, Israel's Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Powell it would be wrong to put his imprimatur on the peace plan by receiving its authors. But in Washington, White House spokesmen Scott McClellan said on Wednesday President George W. Bush had no problems with Powell meeting the Geneva pact authors. "The president appreciates the job the secretary of state is doing and recognises it is important for the secretary of state to meet with a variety of people who have views that may or may not be useful to moving forward in our efforts in the Middle East," McClellan said. But he said a U.S.-backed peace "road map" peace plan launched earlier this year envisioning a Palestinian state by 2005 was still Washington's preferred route. Beilin and Abed Rabbo, along with other moderates, drafted the Geneva Accord to fill a void after three years of violence bereft of serious talks, even after Washington launched its peace plan. The two defended the plan on Wednesday as a workable solution to "untouchable" issues that was intended to advance, not undermine, the "road map". "This plan with all its detailed formulas represents the only solution," said former Palestinian minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, who called the controversial plan a "pragmatic, possible solution" that balances Israeli and Palestinian interests. Co-author Yossi Beilin, a leading Israeli dove, said: "We want to save the road map, not compete with the road map." They spoke at a program sponsored by The Brookings Institution's Saban Center. Hailed by dozens of former world leaders as a brave peace initiative, the Geneva deal would require Israel to hand over lands it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and share sovereignty over Jerusalem to create a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has denounced the deal, launched in Geneva on Monday, as a capitulation to Palestinian demands. The right-wing Israeli government may view Washington's greeting of the Geneva accord authors as a further toughening of policy towards Israel by the largely pro-Israel Bush administration. Last month, President George W. Bush called for an end to "the daily humiliation" of Palestinians. His administration has also reduced Israel's loan guarantees in protest at a barrier the government is building in the West Bank that it says is a bulwark against suicide bombings, but which Palestinians say is a de-facto border for its future state. |
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