Roundup: Bush's New Plan Presents No Good Prospect

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 22, 2002

Roundup: Bush's New Plan Presents No Good Prospect

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The US new plan for Middle East peace soon to be announced by President W. Bush has been brought to light by the media before it comes out. Although the details of the plan are still unknown, however, it is said the United States has informed Egypt and Israel about its content. At present, the contents of the new plan spread by the media include mainly the following two aspects:

First, calling for the establishment of an interim (or transitional) state of Palestine, it has the right of administration and security control, but it only has the right of administration over 40 percent of the land on the West Bank of the Jordan River, while Israel is responsible for its security; it may send its plenipotentiary to the United Nations and it enjoys the sovereign right recognized by the international community and, in this name, participate in negotiation and develop foreign relations with other country, sign trading agreements, etc.

Second, it is suggested that a Middle East peace international conference be held in Washington during the period when the UN General Assembly is in session this September, Palestine and Israel shall send representatives to attend the conference to concentrate on the discussion of matters concerning implementation of the UN Security Council's related resolutions Nos. 242, 338 and 1397 on the basic concept about establishment of a Palestine State; the peace proposal set forth by Saudi Prince Abdullah and passed by the Arab summit meeting held at the end of March will be discussed at the conference, the conference will work out procedures for starting up Palestine's political, economic and security measure reforms, as well as draw up a timetable for concretely carrying out these reforms.

Sources said that the new peace plan was originally projected to be formally announced to the world by President W. Bush on June 19, due to the two suicidal explosion incidents directed against Israel's common people, which was created by the extremists of "Hamas" and other organizations in Jerusalem on June 18 and 19 and which caused 25 deaths and more than 100 injuries, so the time for President Bush to give a speech will be put off, but it is estimated it won't be delayed for too long.

It should be admitted that considering the role the United States can play on the Middle East issue, people around the world who are concerned about the Middle East question are waiting for the publication of the new peace plan. But judged from the initial reaction after the plan was revealed by the media, the prospect seems to be no good. According to local experts' comments on the Arab issue, in fact, there exist many problems with the new plan which have caused the Arab world much suspicion and mistrust. Because the new plan seems having made no mention about the questions such as whether the Palestinians have the right to control frontier check-posts within the boundary of the Palestine State, how to handle other Palestinian territory on the West Bank of the Jordan River, how to treat the Israeli Jew settlements established on the Palestinian territory, as well as the way for finally handling Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. Therefore, at least currently on public occasions Arab leaders give a very cold response to the plan.

Experts point out most Palestinians and Arabians are unlikely to accept such a plan. After meeting with UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan on June 18, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath said to London-based Arabic paper, "Life" that the basic "viewpoint" expounded by the Palestinian side to Annan and US leaders is about the boundary issue, that is, restoring to the boundary before the 1967 war, Palestine will not accept a transitional state without boundary, or with an indistinct boundary. Of course, there is also a viewpoint which holds that perhaps there are people on the Palestinian leading level who believe there are some merits in the new peace plan, because it is, after all, possible to realistically gain something out of the hands of Israel, and then gradually recover more things they deserve through efforts.

According to reports from the Egypt-based Ahram, Al (The Pyramids) published on June 19 and other leading media, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with Saudi Foreign Secretary Faysal in Cairo on June 18 who handed in the letter from Saudi King Fahad. The Egyptian president planned to pay a transient visit to Jordan and Syria. This indicates that the Arab world is obviously stepping up consultations on the new plan soon to come out and coordinate their stands in this regard.

Egypt and Jordan have indicated that they refuse to accept the concept on Palestine to be a provisional state, instead, they demand the establishment of a Palestine State with sovereign integrity. President Mubarak himself will make public reaction after President Bush formally announces his peace plan.

It is reported senior officials of the Israeli government believe President Bush's new peace plan will take Ariel Sharon's stand as the basic point, that is, finally establishing a Palestine State without a clearly defined boundary through a long "transitional" stage; and there is not a clearly set timetable for the entire peace process, and necessary adjustments will be made according to concrete circumstances; the two sides can resume peace talks only after Palestine conducts real administration reform and stop all violence activities. Apparently, differences between Arab and Israel remain, the possibility of a "dead fetus" for the new peace plan cannot be ruled out completely.

By People's Daily Online

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