The Palestinian Authority (PA) has accepted a US mechanism to
implement the roadmap peace plan and its first phase is supposed to
be started immediately, Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmed Qurei
said Saturday.
The roadmap plan was declared in 2002 by US President George W.
Bush who called for creating a viable and democratic Palestinian
statehood alongside Israel which should be secured.
The US, the EU, Russia and the UN -- known as the International
Quartet -- are the four entities that sponsor the implantation of
the plan, which has stopped in 2003 due to violence between Israel
and Palestinian militant groups.
The first phase of the roadmap plan calls on the Palestinians to
crack down on militants while demanding that Israel halt Jewish
settlement activity and uproot illegal outposts.
The International Quartet was supposed to follow up the applying
of the plan since it was finalized in 2003. But Israel later
refused to stick to its obligations when the plan was about to take
effect.
"We have accepted the American offer which stipulates that the
US administration be the judge," Qurei told Ramallah-based al-
Ayyam daily.
It will be the first time that the US takes this role instead of
the Quartet.
According to Qurei, a three-way Palestinian, Israeli and
American committee is being formed to be responsible for supporting
the plan's implementation.
Media reports here say that caretaker Palestinian Prime Minister
Salam Fayyad, who was appointed after Hamas took over the Gaza
Strip in June, would represent the PA at the trilateral committee
while Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will represent
Israel.
The progress that was made on the roadmap plan after four years
of freeze comes as part of American offers to revive
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In July, Bush had called for an international peace conference
to invite Israel, the Palestinians, Arab and world leaders to
resume the peace process and end up with establishing a Palestinian
state.
The much-touted peace conference is expected to be held in
Annapolis in the US later this month.
Qurei denied reports that the Americans have drafted the joint
document to be presented at the upcoming Annapolis conference.
In early October, Israel and the Palestinians formed two
negotiating teams to hammer out the joint document over resuming
the peace negotiations.
In addition, Qurei described the current talks with Israel as
"serious but hard, focusing on all issues," mainly a timetabled
mechanism for the negotiations that will follow the Annapolis
conference.
The two sides, however, have so far failed to work out the
document as the gap between them is huge especially on those final-
status issues, including the borders of a Palestinian state,
sovereignty of disputed Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian
refugees.
While the Palestinians voices demands for a detailed timetable
for establishment of a Palestinian statehood, Israel insists that
the Palestinians should crack down on militants first.
(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2007)
