Haaretz
Cheshvan 8, 5765
The European
Union's foreign policy chief said in an interview published Saturday that
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate Jewish settlements from the
Gaza Strip and four West Bank of settlements would not
suffice.
Javier Solana called on Sharon to pull out of all the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
If Sharon believes that with a "pullout from
Gaza everything is already done and that peace would come automatically,
we won't support that," he said. "That wouldn't be a dream, but a
nightmare," Solana was quoted as saying by Der Spiegel, a weekly news
magazine
Solana also said he hoped to send European experts in
cooperation with Egypt to help train Palestinian security forces within
the coming months.
"Probably together with Egypt, we will send
well-prepared people so that the Palestinians can enact a sensible command
structure and also have the ability to fulfill their duty," Solana was
quoted as saying.
Under Sharon's disengagement plan, Israel will
withdraw from Gaza, where 8,000 Jewish settlers live among 1.3 million
Palestinians, next year. The plan also includes a pullback from four small
West Bank settlements. It is expected to be presented to the Knesset
plenum for a vote of approval on Tuesday.
Solana told The
Associated Press last month that no new "bold ideas" for the Middle East
should be expected before the U.S. presidential election in
November.
He said the EU, the United States, Russia and the United
Nations would continue pressing for the internationally backed road map
peace plan they drafted with the goal of having two states, Israel and
Palestine, living side by side in peace in 2005.
According to
Israeli sources, the Europeans are trying to use the 'diplomatic vacuum'
that has grown during the days and weeks before the presidential elections
in the United States. The European Council of Foreign Ministers recently
adopted a resolution critical of Israel, and charged Solana with drawing
up recommendations for the EU's Middle East policy ahead of its next
meeting on November 5. According to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem,
Solana will present a "street map," aimed at outlining the steps needed to
implement the road map to a Palestinian state.
During his visit to
Israel, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said that Europe is seeking
to become a diplomatic giant, in the same way that it has already become
an economic giant. He also insisted that violence and instability in the
Middle East are a threat to Israel.
Sha'ath stresses need for
elections
The Palestinian Authority needs a general election to
shake up the leadership, its foreign minister said on Friday, stressing
the need for vibrant democracy in politics long dominated by PA Chairman
Yasser Arafat.
Nabil Sha'ath said elections could not take place
until the security situation had improved, ruling out an early
poll.
"Elections are the single most important act of reform
because elections turn a stale democracy to a vibrant democracy," Sha'ath
told reporters after talks with Solana in Brussels.
"Elections
allow the rejuvenation of the leadership and allow greater participation
by the people in decision-making about very important matters, about peace
and war and the future."
Palestinian general elections were
originally scheduled for early 2003 but put off on security grounds. They
are seen as the first concrete step to meet long-standing international
and domestic demands for reforms.
Palestinian politics have been
dominated for decades by Arafat, who has widespread support among
Palestinians, but a September poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy
and Survey Research showed more than 90 percent of Palestinians wanted
sweeping political reforms.
Sha'ath said that although local
elections would go ahead starting in December, there was little chance of
a general election in the near future.
"We are going into a small
step of local elections on December 9 regardless of the situation," he
said.
"But to go into national elections there needs to be a
minimum amount of quiet, and withdrawal of Israelis from towns and
villages," he added. "Once that is possible then elections are
possible."
An EU official said the bloc wanted the elections to go
ahead, but added that the Union understood the delays.
"We do want
the elections to take place but it is clear that for free and fair
elections there would have to be freedom of movement for people to go and
vote and register," the official said, speaking on conditions of
anonymity.
"We are going to present to our friends, the
Palestinians, a plan in order to get that disengagement process in the
most effective manner," he told reporters.
"That is part of a
process which is not an end in itself, but a part of the process that
should lead to the end of the occupation."
Five European FMs to
vist Arafat
Five European foreign ministers are planning to visit
Ramallah in the near future, according to Sha'ath.
Speaking to the
Al-Quds newspaper, which is published in East Jerusalem, Sha'ath said that
the ministers would meet with Arafat, in an effort to end the physical and
diplomatic isolation of the Palestinian leader. Shaath, currently in
Paris, was to hold talks Friday night with Barnier.
Of late, Europe
has increased the frequency of its comments on the need for a peace
process, and on Arafat's standing. During his visit last week, Barnier
told President Moshe Katsav that "restricting Arafat's movements and
keeping him within the Muqata give him an excuse not to fulfill his
commitments." Barnier proposed that Israel lift its restrictions on the
Palestinian leader, and put him to another test.
According to
Sha'ath, the European move was initiated by Spain, which hopes to convince
other European countries to join it. Shaath also claimed that Spain will
also try to persuade Israel to renew negotiations with the PA under
Arafat.
On Wednesday, Sha'ath met with Spanish Foreign Minister
Miguel Angel Moratinos, the former EU envoy to the Middle East. Moratinos
called for immediate implementation of the road map, but told Shaath that
any diplomatic moves should be based on the Israeli disengagement plan.
Quoting a political sources in Brussels, Al-Quds reported that the EU
would not allow Israel to utilize Arafat's need for medical treatment
abroad in order to expel him from the West Bank. In recent weeks,
physicians from Egypt and Jordan have traveled to Ramallah to treat Arafat
for a variety of ailments.