MIDEAST: US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell yesterday met the architects of the unofficial Middle East peace plan in Washington, despite strong objections from Israel.
Mr Elliott Abrams of the National Security Council also attended the meeting with former Israeli justice minister Mr Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian information minister Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, in the State Department, indicating broad Bush administration approval for the efforts behind the Geneva Accord.
Mr Powell, who has just returned from a trip to North Africa and Europe, had emphasised that despite the meeting the US remains committed to its "road map" for Middle East peace. The road map calls for a staged approach, including the end to Palestinian violence and to Jewish settlement of Palestinian territories and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. The Geneva Accord goes further by tackling sensitive issues such as control of Jerusalem and return of Palestinian refugees and specifies a territorial solution that brings Israel back to pre-1967 borders.
A national campaign in the US to support the Geneva Accord was launched yesterday with a full page advertisement in the New York Times from the Tikkun Community, a recently-formed inter-faith organisation dedicated to peace and reconciliation, which was signed by hundreds of supporters, including leading members of America's Jewish community.
"The cycle of mutual blame, like the cycle of violence, leads nowhere," said the Tikkun Community. "What is needed is a shift in focus toward positive alternatives, and that is what the Geneva Accord gives us."
A State Department official denied that the meeting was a snub to Israel's government, but relations between the two allies have cooled. The US has withheld millions of dollars in loan guarantees to protest against new Jewish settlements and the building by Israel of a West Bank security barrier encroaching on Palestinian land. Israel's Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon had called Mr Powell's plan to meet Mr Beilin and Mr Rabbo a "mistake."
"The decisions of the future of the peace process will be made by the elected government [of Israel] and not by anyone else, especially not by people who have no political constituency whatsoever in Israel," an Israeli government official, referring to the co-authors of the peace plan, said after their meeting.
The US official said: "We don't see our meeting with these people as detracting from our desire and our commitment to, and our interest in working with, the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to help them meet their commitments and take the decisions necessary to move forward on the road map."
Ms Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, has refused to talk to Mr Beilin or Mr Rabbo.
Mr Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary, agreed to meet the delegation but cancelled at the last moment, saying he was too busy with Iraq-related issues, Palestinian officials said.