The Palestinians have welcomed British Prime Minister Tony Blair's statement Tuesday afternoon that Israel and the Palestinians must resume full peace talks by the end of this year, but Israeli diplomatic sources were quoted as dismissing the speech, saying they were sticking with the roadmap outlined by U.S. President George Bush.
Israel Radio quoted senior diplomatic officials in Israel as saying that the British Foreign Office can prepare speeches for Blair to its heart's content, but that Israel will stick with U.S. President Bush's roadmap for the Middle East.
Blair spoke at his ruling Labour Party's annual conference in northern England. "This is a very important statement," Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's bureau said a statement. "We call on Blair to pressure Israel to return without delay to the negotiations table," the statement added.
"The Palestinian Authority calls on Blair to increase pressure on Israel to immediately implement UN Security Council Resolution 1435 by withdrawing its forces from the all occupied Palestinian territories," the statement said.
Blair said United Nations resolutions must be implemented across the Middle East, not just in Baghdad.
"Yes, what is happening in the Middle East now is ugly and wrong - the Palestinians living in increasingly abject conditions, humiliated and hopeless (and) Israeli civilians brutally murdered," he told Labour's annual conference.
"By this year's end, we must have revived final status negotiations and they must have explicitly as their aims an Israeli state free from terror, recognized by the Arab world, and a viable Palestinian state based on the boundaries of 1967."
Blair stated his support for United Nations resolutions to be applied to the situation between Israel and the Palestinians as much as to Iraq. "But they don't just apply to Israel. They apply to all parties." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
