• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Palestinian Official Urges Israeli Pullout to Be Part of Road Map

Posted on: Sunday, 3 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report by Palestinian radio Voice of Palestine on 3 July

Dr Sa'ib Urayqat, head of the PLO's Negotiations Department, has called on the Quartet [the UN, the EU, Russia, the USA] to determine the means of implementing its repeated statements that the [Israeli] withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the north of the West Bank should be part of the road map. Urayqat told our radio station that proposing new initiatives to achieve peace in the Middle East would be meaningless in the absence of time schedules and monitoring teams that would verify the implementation of the Quartet's road map.

Urayqat said that Israel's refusal to give specific answers to the [Palestinian] National Authority [PNA] regarding the mechanisms of withdrawal proves that it intends to make this withdrawal a final step to freeze and kill the peace process and not an initial step to revive it.

Urayqat said that the Israeli government's repeated claims about security needs and what it terms as secure borders are unjustified, especially since the technology and weapons it has cancel the concept of geographic security. He stressed that security would be achieved only if a just peace that is based on ending the occupation and economic prosperity is accomplished.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair had asked Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah to support the initiative he intends to propose during the G8 summit scheduled to be held in Scotland on Wednesday. Israeli sources have expressed worry about this initiative, asserting that Tel Aviv would not withdraw from the Jordan valley and areas in the West Bank in the future on the pretext of its need for what they termed as secure borders.

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

More News in this Category