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US Working on Timetable for Implementing Mitchell Report: Ambassador
The United States is working on a timetable for implementing the Mitchell report on ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and resuming their peace talks, US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said Wednesday.
Talking to reporters after his meeting with Israeli Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, Martin Indyk said that he was optimistic about the likelihood that both Israelis and Palestinians would be amenable to the timetable.
The Mitchell report offers a serious chance to put an end to the violence, restart security coordination between Israel and the Palestinians and a return to diplomatic negotiations, Burg said.
Meanwhile, William Burns, U.S. ambassador to Jordan, will travel to Israel this weekend to meet with Israeli Prime minister Ariel Sharon and to Gaza to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to discuss the implementation of the report, Israel's Army Radio reported Wednesday.
Burns, appointed as a special envoy to the Middle East by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday, has been chosen by the U.S. Administration to head the U.S. team assisting Israel and the Palestinians in implementing the report.
He will try to find out points of agreement between the two sides in putting the stipulations of the report into effect.
The report, which was announced on Monday in New York by the International Inquiry Committee headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, calls for immediate cease-fire, a freeze on Jewish settlements and more determined action against terrorism from the Palestinians.
Powell expressed on Monday his "general endorsement" of the report, saying that it could serve as a basis for ending the spiralling violence in the Middle East.
Besides Burns to head the U.S. team, Indyk and U.S. Consul- General in Jerusalem Ronald Schlicher were assigned by the U.S. administration to handle U.S. contacts with the Israeli and Palestinian sides respectively.กก
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