Jordan Times
Friday, August 6, 2004
Muasher, Beilin discuss
peace process
AMMAN (Petra) — Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher on Thursday met here Israeli
Yachad Party leader Yossi Beilin for talks on the Middle East peace process.
Muasher told Beilin that any Israeli withdrawal from Gaza should be part of a
comprehensive plan to end the occupation of Palestinian territories, the Jordan
News Agency, Petra, reported.
Muasher reiterated that Jordan supports all efforts to ensure the full
implementation of the roadmap, adding that the Kingdom is ready to train
Palestinian security personnel upon a request from the Palestinian Authority.
“We have no intention to assume a bigger role than this in the West Bank,” he
stressed, underlining the need to establish a Palestinian state within the 1967
borders.
The minister said Jordan fears that the Israeli separation barrier would
eliminate the proposed settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the
basis of a two-state solution.
Israeli and Palestinian signatories of an unofficial Middle East peace plan were
to gather in Jordan from Thursday to discuss the progress of their “Geneva
Initiative,” Agence France-Presse reported.
The chief architects of the project, former Justice Minister Beilin and
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, will be among a group of
around 70 delegates gathering at a hotel at the Dead Sea, organisers said in a
statement.
The Geneva Initiative was drawn up during marathon talks in Jordan last year and
officially unveiled amid great fanfare in Switzerland.
It proposes solutions for some of the thorniest problems in the conflict, such
as the status of occupied Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, but has been
rejected by Israel's government and received a lukewarm reception from the
Palestinians.
The meeting in Jordan was to end Saturday.
In June, Beilin published a book entitled: “The Path to Geneva: The Quest for a
Permanent Solution, 1996-2004,” to offer a comprehensive insider's view of the
recent years of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, according to the publishers.