Condi Didn’t Wander from Road Map
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem yesterday. The greatest achievement of that get-together is the decision to hold a summit of Palestine and Israel under the personal auspices of Condoleezza Rice. At the same time, the U.S. state secretary made clear Washington won’t tolerate any international conferences on Palestine and Israel, which are advocated by Moscow.
The three-way talks of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be held in the nearest future, Ehud Olmert’s aide announced yesterday. The gathering that is expected to set into motion stalled talks of Palestine and Israel will be based on the road map initiative spearheaded by Washington in 2003.
The road map sets forth the steps to create an interim state and then a permanent one in Palestine. Under the road map, Israel is expected to stop military actions and to withdraw from the Palestinian Autonomy, while the latter is told to disarm extremist groups.
The obvious flaw of this initiative of the United States is unclear succession. So far, the parties have failed to agree, which of them should begin. Israel advocates first disarming the militants, while the Palestinians refuse to disarm till Israel pulls out of the Autonomy.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 16, 2007
|
