Palestinians favourable to road map

PALESTINIAN leaders have put aside reservations to parts of the US-developed plan for peace with Israel and are ready to get started on it, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday, heeding an appeal by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“We have accepted the road map,” Abbas said at a joint news conference with Powell after their first meeting since Abbas was sworn in on April 30.

For the sake of opening the road, we have dropped our reservations.”

Powell said “there is sufficient good will to get started” on the blueprint.

It was developed by the Bush administration with the European Union, the United Nations and Russia in an effort to end 31 months of conflict, commit Israel and the Palestinians to stop the violence, and set up a Palestinian state within three years.

“I believe there is sufficient agreement on the road map that we can get started,” said Powell, who earlier yesterday met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem before seeing Abbas and other Palestinian leaders on the West Bank.

However, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian minister, suggested the path ahead was not so smooth, noting the Israelis insist on reopening the road map for revisions.

Nabil Shaath, a longtime top Palestinian official, said: “What’s missing is not where the US stands, it’s where Israel stands.”

Abbas’ emergence as the Palestinian leader with whom the United States intends to deal is not universally accepted. European leaders contend that Yasser Arafat, as head of the Palestinian movement, should not be shunned.

In fact, Abbas made a public appeal in Powell’s presence that Israel remove its travel restrictions on the chairman of the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas asked that Arafat “be granted his freedom to travel without the restrictions Israel imposes on him.”

Before leaving for the West Bank, Powell reaffirmed the US position on dealing with Arafat: “We recognise that Mr Arafat is still there, but the United States will not be working with him. We believe that this is the time to invest in the new leadership.”

The secretary said other governments can make their own decisions, but he hopes the Europeans eventually would follow the US lead.

President Bush , who has declined to invite Arafat to the White House, subsequently declared him deeply involved in terrorist activity against Israel.

As a result, the United States has suspended contact with Arafat.