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Monday, October 18, 2004
PA FM Sha'ath prefers Kerry over Bush

PLO Welcomes Solana's Plan to Revive Peace Process
Shaath to BBC: Bush Re-election Doesn't 'Look Very Promising'
18/10/2004

Palestine Media Center - PMC [Official website of the PA]
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=708

The PLO has welcomed the plan put forward by the EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana to revive the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and implement
the UN-adopted "roadmap" peace plan as the Palestinian Foreign Minister
Nabil Sha'ath said that peace prospects do not seem "promising" if the US
President Bush is re-elected for a second term.

The Palestinian leadership "welcomes the plan announced by the European
foreign policy chief Mr. (Javier) Solana to revive the peace process,
implement the roadmap, conclude a reciprocal ceasefire and enforce all the
signed accords," the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) said on Sunday.

Following its weekly meeting, which was chaired by President Yaser Arafat
and attended by representatives of national factions in the West Bank city
of Ramallah, the leadership requested that the European Union provide
economic aid to the Palestinian people while it welcomed its "brave"
position voiced by the EU foreign ministers, who demanded last week that the
Israeli government put an immediate end to its military operations in the
northern Gaza Strip.

More than 2000 IOF troops, accompanied by 200 Israeli tanks, dozens of
US-made Apache helicopters and armored bulldozers entered one of the most
populated regions of the Gaza Strip, namely Jabalya, Beit Lahya and Beit
Hanoun refugee camps, which are home to more than 250,000 Palestinians.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei said on Saturday that 140
Palestinians were killed and some 500 injured during the Israeli military
invasion, which began on September 28.

More than 50 Palestinian children were among the victims and more than 300
civilians, including more than 80 children, were among the wounded.

Infrastructure, farms and more than 100 homes were destroyed, bulldozed and
demolished. The scene left before the IOF redeployed on Friday outside the
population centers in the towns of Beit Lahya, Beit Hanoun and he Jabalya
refugee camp was compared to the aftermath of an earthquake.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat called in a statement Sunday for an
international investigative panel to probe the Israeli invasion and to
provide immediate and urgent aid to rebuild what Israeli Occupation Forces
have destroyed in the area.

FM Shaath Voices Palestinian Frustration with US

The Unites States' failure to condemn and to join the EU in demanding an
immediate end to the IOF invasion coupled by the US veto, which killed a
United Nations Security Council resolution demanding the Israeli withdrawal,
were interpreted by the Palestinians as a "green light" to Israelis to carry
on their atrocities for more than two weeks.

The Palestinian frustration with the US indifference was echoed Sunday by
the Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath.

"If (US President George W.) Mr. Bush is re-elected, he promised that he
would reinvigorate the peace process, but with his team around, and with his
views so far, it doesn't look very promising," Sha'ath told BBC television.

While acknowledging that a victory for Democratic challenger John Kerry
could signal a better outlook, Sha'ath also voiced pessimism that his team
would bring about swift progress in the stalled peace process.

"If Mr. Kerry were to win, most likely some of (former US president Bill)
Clinton's team would come back. That is okay, but it might take them a year
before firming up a policy. We cannot wait that long," Sha'ath added.

Palestinians also hold the Bush Administration responsible for the siege
imposed by the IOF on President Arafat since December 20001.

Bush's refusal to deal with Arafat was interpreted by Palestinians as
another "green light" for Israel to impose and to maintain the siege on
Arafat.

However, Ahmad Ghneim, an official from Arafat's ruling Fatah movement,
believes that world leaders "will put pressure on the incoming American
administration to show more openness, particularly with regard to the
Palestinian leadership."

"There is no fundamental difference between Kerry and Bush regarding the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the current president has a tendency to
pursue policies which encourage violence, as in the case of Iraq and
Afghanistan," he said.

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini told the London-based Al-Hayat
daily Sunday that the EU is trying to work out "a joint step" with Israel to
end President Arafat's siege.

But the Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was quick to pre-empt such a
possibility by announcing that his country opposes the UN and EU demand to
end Arafat's siege.

Arafat's political adviser Bassam Abu Sharif on Sunday proposed that the
Secretary General of the Arab League Amre Mousa immediately starts contacts
with the African Union (AU), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) with the aim of persuading
their leaders to join the besieged Palestinian leader on a fast-breaking
meal at his headquarters in Ramallah during the holy month of Ramadan, in a
move to "break his Israeli shackles."

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