*EPF206 09/17/2002
Middle East Quartet Details Plans for Palestinian Statehood
(U.S. supports Palestinian elections in early 2003, Powell says) (700)

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East September 17 outlined the details of a three-phase roadmap that could achieve a final and comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian settlement within three years. The plan, the Quartet said after a half day of meetings with all parties in the region, is based on "performance and hope."

"Comprehensive security performance is essential, as is an end to the morally repugnant violence and terror. But we are all in agreement that the overall plan must address political, economic, humanitarian and institutional dimensions. It should spell out reciprocal steps to be taken by the parties in each of the phases," Secretary General Kofi Annan said on behalf of the Quartet.

"We need a process that is both performance-driven and hope-driven. Because we need both performance and hope," he said. "There is hope, and there is a horizon in this proposal for the Palestinians."

The plan, Annan said, is a way to make progress on economic and political fronts and "gives the Palestinians an incentive to work with us."

The United States is supporting the holding of elections in the Palestinian territories next year, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

The U.S. secretary said that the logistics of enabling people to move through the territories in order to participate in elections have to be worked out, but "we believe we have to move down a track that will permit the Palestinian people to express their view in elections."

Asked about the continued leadership of Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, the secretary said that the United States understands that he was elected by the Palestinian people but sees his leadership "as having been a failed leadership."

The secretary said that the United States "will not dictate to the Palestinians who they may choose to have in their legislature or elsewhere in the governing body, but we also have to retain the option of deciding who we would deal with and who we think is an effective leader to move us toward a path toward peace."

"We believe that the Palestinian people are also now looking for new kinds of leadership," Powell said. "You can see a great deal of churning within the Palestinian leadership...what happened in the Palestinian cabinet last week. I think there is also an understanding within the Palestinian community that the leadership provided by Chairman Arafat has not succeeded in moving them closer to their goal."

In addition to the UN secretary general and Powell, other members of the Quartet are Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller of Denmark, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU). Also attending the session were Javier Solana, EU high representative for common foreign and security policy, and Chris Patten, EU external relations commissioner.

The quartet held a series of meetings during the morning. They first met among themselves, then met with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. A third and final meeting was with an Israeli delegation led by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and a Palestinian delegation led by Farouk Kadoummi.

The first phase of the plan is to be Palestinian security reform, Israeli withdrawal, and support for Palestinian elections to be held in early 2003. Later in 2003, the second phase will focus on creating a Palestinian state with provisional borders and a new constitution as "a way station to a permanent status settlement," the secretary general said.

From 2004 to mid-2005 the Quartet plan envisions "Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a permanent status solution," Annan said.

"Both the Palestinian reform effort and political progress must include Israeli measures to improve the lives of Palestinians: to allow the resumption of economic activity and the movement of goods, people and essential services; to ease or lift curfew and closures," he said. "Israel must also return the tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority and all Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territory must stop."

The Palestinians will work with the United States and others in the region to reform their security services and combat terrorism. Israelis and Palestinians should both work to allow policing and law and order for West Bank and Gaza citizens and re-establish security cooperation, he said.

The Quartet is also continuing to discuss an international conference, the secretary general said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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