By Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 2002 (IPS)

The high-ranking “Quartet” working on a solution to the Middle East conflict will pressure Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories before the end of the year, as part of a comprehensive plan towards a permanent solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The plan, unveiled in New York on Tuesday, will be carried out in three phases over the next three years, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told journalists after meetings with the “Quartet” – the United Nations, the United States, Russia, and the European Union.

The first phase, until mid-2003, will involve formulating “performance-based criteria” for security reform, gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces to their position of September 2000 and support for the Palestinians to hold free, fair and credible elections next year, said Annan.

The initial phase will also include a ministerial level meeting of a liaison committee to review the humanitarian situation and prospects for economic development in the West Bank and Gaza. It would also focus on identifying areas for donor assistance before the end of this year, the Secretary General said.

In the second phase next year, “our efforts should focus on the option of creating a Palestinian state with provisional borders based upon a new constitution, as a way station to a permanent status settlement,” said a statement released by the Quartet later in the day.

In its final stage, from 2004-2005, the plan envisages a “permanent status” solution based on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

“Consistent with the vision expressed by U.S. President Bush, this means that the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will be ended through a settlement negotiated between the parties and based on U.N. resolutions 242 and 338, with Israeli withdrawal to secure and recognised borders,” it added.

The Quartet was established in Madrid in April at the height of violent attacks by both sides in the long-standing conflict.

Prior to releasing the plan on Tuesday, the group also held talks with Israeli and Palestinian diplomats as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

In its plan the Quartet, for the first time, endorsed U.N. findings on the humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza and urged Israel to ensure “full, safe, and unfettered access for international humanitarian personnel”.

In August last year, a U.N. report warned that rising poverty and unemployment caused by Israeli restrictions and curfews could spell a human catastrophe for the region. A U.N. special coordinator in the region claimed that more than half of the Palestinians in West Bank cities had become jobless because of curfews imposed by the Israeli army.

“Both the Palestinian reform effort and political progress must include Israeli measures to improve the lives of Palestinians,” said Annan on Tuesday, who also urged Israel to return the tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority.

“All Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories must stop,” he added.

The Quartet, which intends to convene an international conference on the Middle East conflict, called on Palestinians to “work with the U.S. and regional partners” to reform their security services, strengthen policing and law and order for the civilian population, and fight “the terror that has severely undermined the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians”.

Annan said he hoped the Israeli withdrawal would be an incentive for the Palestinians to work with the Quartet, but added: “It’s a very complex situation we are all going to deal with. It’s not a situation where the Quartet can come and impose a solution.”

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who represented the European Union in the Quartet meeting, said making the plan work would take a long time. “When you make a roadmap, you have to talk to a lot of people.”

Many doubt that Israel would be willing to permit such a solution. Recently, a senior Israeli official made it clear to the Bush administration that his government would not allow the Palestinian Authority to hold elections in the Occupied territory.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday he was aware of Israel’s position but added: “I took note of what the Israeli official said, but we have to move down a track that would open the Palestinians to express their views in election.”

But Powell said there was no change in the Bush administration’s desire to see Yasser Arafat removed as president of the Palestinian Authority. “We understand he is elected by the Palestinian people, but Palestinian people are looking for a new leadership.”

The Palestinian Authority plans to hold elections in the occupied territories in January next year.

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