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Palestinian officials told a conference Tuesday that a political settlement in Israel is not possible until suicide bombings stop and Israeli restrictions on Palestinians are lifted.
The conference was hampered by the absence of senior Palestinian representatives, who were barred by Israel from attending after a suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv killed 23 people. The Palestinians participated through a video hookup from the West Bank.
"The suicide bombings will not bring us peace, and confiscating of our liberty will not bring you security. Let us together reject extremism in all its forms. Let us together choose the path of peaceful negotiations," said Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, commenting from Ramallah.
Britain proposed the meeting to promote Palestinian reforms as a way of breaking the impasse with Israel, and to persuade the United States, which is focusing on Iraq, to do more to end the violence in Israel.
Israeli officials were not invited because the meeting dealt with the reform of the Palestinian authority). But Assistant Secretary William Burns, who heads the State Department's Middle East bureau, represented the United States.
The meeting also included two Palestinian delegates based in London, as well as representatives from the United Nations), the European Union), Russia, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Egypt sent its intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, who has directed his country's efforts to resume Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon) rejected British Prime Minister Tony Blair)'s appeal to reconsider the travel ban on the Palestinians. Israel controls Palestinian travel and decides who can and cannot leave.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan) expressed disappointment that Israel blocked the Palestinian representatives from attending. "The Israeli decision was unfortunate," he said.
Blair met with delegates Tuesday and said the conference "represents significant progress by the international community in what are difficult circumstances."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described the meeting as "comprehensive" and "constructive," and Palestinian delegates promised to produce a draft of the new Palestinian constitution to participants in the next two weeks.
Straw said the so-called Quartet - the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - would meet again in London the week of Feb. 10 "to take further stock of the progress which we have made today." The four meet periodically to formulate a strategy for Mideast peace.
Annan said he hopes a roadmap to peace will be put on the table in the next couple months and expects it to spur peace efforts. The roadmap was prepared by the so-called Quartet: the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.
Straw said further progress was needed to improve the Palestinian administration. He said the Palestinian delegates agreed that attacks on Israelis must stop for there to be "a viable peace process, leading to a separate and independent state of Palestine."
Afif Safieh, one of only two official Palestinian representatives in London, said Palestinian internal reforms are necessary, but "the verdict today of the international community is that there is a state which is missing and needs to be created."
We have assured our interlocutors that reforms in democracy (and) meritocracy are a Palestinian aspiration, a Palestinian expectation, a Palestinian right and even a Palestinian duty to ourselves."
Most Palestinian representatives addressed the meeting from the West Bank city of Ramallah, where they watched the proceedings on a white video screen divided into three parts: Ramallah, Gaza and London.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the conference was designed to advance the "vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and stability."
Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) said he doubted the conference would achieve anything, but that the "difference of opinion" between Israel and Britain over Palestinian attendance would not strain the two nations' close relations.
(China Daily January 15, 2003)
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