Mideast quartet may be at turning point -envoy
Source: Reuters
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Friday's quartet meeting of Middle East mediators is its most important ever with world powers expected to endorse U.S. initiatives to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a veteran Middle East negotiator said on Wednesday.
"For the first time in years there is a very serious U.S. initiative to address the overall political issues, basically readdressing everything which is addressed in the road map," Terje Roed-Larsen, a Middle East expert said in an interview.
The quartet -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- meet in Washington on Friday. In 2003 they drew up the "road map," a blueprint for simultaneous actions by Israel and the Palestinians leading to two states living side by side by 2005.
Roed-Larsen, who has been involved in Middle East mediation since he helped organize the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo accords, insisted the time was ripe for movement despite the deep split between the Hamas and Fatah Palestinian groups.
"There is a new positive and constructive U.S. initiative under way and I do believe that the quartet will swing its muscle behind the U.S. initiatives, namely to address all issues and to reassess all issues," said Roed-Larsen, now head of the International Peace Academy think tank, said:
He acknowledged that all issues could not be addressed in the quartet meeting "but it has the potential to be the launching pad for a process." He added: "And this is why I would say this is the most important meeting the quartet has had since its inception."
NEW BUSH COMMITMENT
In Washington, Egypt's ambassador Nabil Fahmy said he was encouraged by signs of a new commitment from the Bush administration to the Middle East conflict issue and said it was vital Washington played a leading role.
He hoped the talks would give a new push to discussing the "final status" issues - the toughest nuts to crack in bringing a permanent peace to the region - include borders, the rights of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
"I think the Quartet should highlight and reaffirm its commitment to pursuing (a) final settlement. That would provide much more incentive and vigor to the peace process and really engage forces of peace on both sides," Fahmy told Reuters.
The quartet meeting is part of a flurry of contacts including a trip by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Middle East earlier this month.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit will visit Washington next week and Rice plans a meeting, perhaps in mid-February, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Roed-Larsen said breaking the Palestinian-Israeli impasse would not lead to peace in Iraq, Lebanon or the impasse with Iran. But "chances for reviving the Middle East peace process now are much better than moving forward on issues relating to Lebanon and to Iraq."
He suggested negotiators follow the example of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin by putting on the table all relevant issues and moving toward a Palestinian state.
"This would require discrete bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians, facilitated by the United States and supported by the quartet," he said.
One starting point would be an explicit endorsement by the quartet of an Arab peace plan initiated by Saudi Arabia and adopted by an Arab summit in Beirut in 2002. The plan is close to the quartet's road map. (Additional reporting by Irwin Arieff at the United Nations and Sue Pleming and Arshad Mohammed in Washington)
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