U.S., Others Urge Sharon to Pursue Plan

U.S., U.N. and European negotiators Tuesday called on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to move forward with his plan for full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, despite its rejection Sunday by conservative voters in Israel’s Likud Party.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and senior officials from Russia and the European Union said that Sharon’s now uncertain offer to evacuate all settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank presented “a rare moment of opportunity.”

Sticking a foot in a door that seemed to be closing after Sharon was reported to be scaling down the evacuation plan, Powell said that Sharon’s intention to cede land to the Palestinians could breathe new life into the Middle East peace plan.

The withdrawal would be a first step “that would change the equation and give us something to work with,” Powell said. “And we’re trying to take advantage of that opportunity.”

Powell joined the rest of the so-called quartet of negotiators in demanding that the most sensitive issues -- including the drawing of new borders and the “right of return” of Palestinians to ancestral homes in Israel -- be decided by both sides, not Israel alone.

Last month, President Bush endorsed Sharon’s plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza while keeping portions of the West Bank and backed Israel’s declaration that Palestinians should not expect to return to former family homes in Israel.

In an interview with United Arab Emirates-based Al Arabiya TV, U.S. national security advisor Condoleezza Rice tried to allay confusion about the Bush administration’s support for both Sharon’s plan and the “road map” peace plan that would involve talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“When you have the Israeli prime minister come to you and say, ‘We’ll withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza and from four West Bank settlements,’ we believe that that is worth doing,” she said, noting that talks had stalled for three years.

“All of the negotiations that we’ve had over many, many years, we’ve never been able to see the Palestinians actually recover land. If the Sharon plan or some version of it goes forward, then the Palestinians will begin to recover land. And it’s that opportunity to which the president was reacting,” Rice said.

In an interview Tuesday, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Daniel Ayalon, said Israel was pleased with the quartet’s statements on Sharon’s plan.

“I welcome the quartet statements,” Ayalon said. “We fully agree with them. We are committed to the road map. We do see the need for all sides to take seriously their obligations, first and foremost to fight terror in a consistent way on the part of the Palestinians.”

Ayalon said Sharon is “still committed to moving it forward, despite internal complications that we have. The prime minister is determined to find a way to move it forward.”

The quartet also urged a “reorganization” of the Palestinian Authority.

Meanwhile in Washington, a number of former U.S. diplomats, many of whom served in the Arab world, said they would send a letter May 28 to Bush signed by more than 60 former diplomats and government officials who had served abroad, protesting his support for Sharon’s plan.

At a news conference, some of the letter’s signatories said they decided to take the step after 52 former British diplomats sent a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair criticizing his Middle East policy.

“By closing the door to negotiations with Palestinians and the possibility of a Palestinian state, you have proved that the United States is not an even-handed peace partner,” the U.S. letter said. “You have placed U.S. diplomats, civilians and military doing their jobs overseas in an untenable and even dangerous position.”

Among those who signed the letter were Andrew I. Killgore, who served as ambassador to Qatar from 1977 to 1980, and Richard H. Curtiss, the former chief inspector of the U.S. Information Agency. The two publish a magazine, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, that is seen as critical of Israel and supportive of a Palestinian state.

Bush’s shift in policy has also complicated diplomacy with Jordan. King Abdullah II, infuriated by Bush’s endorsement of the Sharon plan, last month postponed a White House meeting with the president.

That meeting is now due to take place Thursday, and Powell said that intensive discussions were underway about the king’s demand for a White House letter ensuring that Palestinians would be compensated for any loss of homes or land in a final settlement.