The US-proposed plan mapping a path to peace in the Middle East will be unveiled when a new Palestinian prime minister with "real authority" takes office, President George W Bush said last night. The move has been greeted with skepticism in the Arab world.
While the announcement that publication of the plan was imminent came as a surprise, the move is being seen as an effort to deflect Arab and European criticism of US policy in the region ahead of an attack on Iraq.
The view is backed-up by the White House reserved position, in which questions the willingness of Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat to relinquish authority over security and peace policy to the prime minister as Mr Bush has demanded.
"The time has come to move beyond entrenched positions and to take concrete actions to achieve peace," Mr Bush said in a hastily arranged appearance in the White House Rose Garden with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Before announcing his plans for the so-called road map, with its goal of reating a Palestinian state by 2005, Mr Bush consulted with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordanian King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah.
As progress is made toward peace, Mr Bush said Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories "must end".
Washington has been under pressure from the other three members of the so-called Quartet of mediating powers - Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - to release the road map amid charges Mr Bush was too preoccupied with Iraq to work toward Middle East peace.
But analysts doubt Mr Bush's overture will help sway Arab public opinion or boost US chances for an Iraq war resolution in the UN Security Council.
"I think it will take something considerably more dramatic than this to shake the Security Council loose," said Mr Warren Bass, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
France, which has vowed to veto a new Iraq resolution, welcomed the move, but stressed that Paris had been calling for action on the road map for months.
"We take note with satisfaction of President Bush's words on the Middle East," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat has offered the post to Mr Mahmoud Abbas, generally know as Abu Mazen, though it has yet to be accept.
The move followed urgent calls by Western powers to rid the Palestinian Authority of corruption and violence through widespread reforms and appoint a prime minister with real powers to govern its day-to-day affairs.
Last June Mr Bush spelled out his vision of a Palestinian state with Arafat no longer at its helm.
"To be a credible and responsible partner, the new Palestinian prime minister must hold a position of real authority. We expect that such a Palestinian prime minister will be confirmed soon," Mr Bush said.
"Immediately upon confirmation, the road map for peace will be given to the Palestinians and the Israelis," he added.
The Israeli President Moshe Katsav said today the prime minister-elect must prove himself by putting an end to terrorism.
"In the past, he [Mazen] often said terrorism had been catastrophic for Palestinians," Mr Katsav said in a radio interview. "But he also justified anti-Israeli attacks in the [occupied] territories, and that is unacceptable.
"Palestinian security forces are intact and must stop terrorists," he said.
The violence in the region has worsened in recent days, with the Palestinians accusing Israel of stepping up attacks while the world focuses on Iraq. Israeli forces have killed 10 Palestinians in the last 24 hours.
While the British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been pressing Washington to speed-up peace moves, doubts have been, some analysts are treating the announcement with deep skepticism and doubt that Arab public opinion will believe that Mr Bush is really working for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
"The skepticism is widely shared in the Arab world and in Europe. Let's hope it's not just another announcement cynically to gain support in Europe and the Middle East," said Mr Edward Abington, a consultant to the Palestinian Authority and former US diplomat in Jerusalem.
But US and British officials have dismissed the suggestion that the announcement is a ploy ahead of bombing Iraq.
"I think it is precisely now when we do have all this focus on the issue of weapons of mass destruction and Saddam ... that we say to the Arab and Muslim world that we accept the obligation of even-handedness," Mr Blair told a news conference.
Mr Blair, under enormous domestic political pressure over his support for possible war against Baghdad, said Mr Arafat and Mr Mr Abbas had indicated to him in a telephone call that the new prime minister might be able to take office as early as next week.
EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana welcomed the news. "I think that there are elements of the road map that can be put in place very rapidly," he said.
AFP &