Friday, June 14, 2002

Palestinians Wary Over Reports of Bush Plan for Separate State
Palestinian officials reacted with concern today to reports that the Bush administration might call for creating an interim Palestinian state, while leaving uncertain the state's final borders and the timetable for achieving them.

Officials in Washington have said that Mr. Bush intends to announce a proposal for Palestinian statehood in an effort to give hope to the Palestinian people and encourage them to lay down arms.

But Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, warned that the step might only increase Palestinian frustration if it is not accompanied by a specific timetable for achieving a state in the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.

"If we deviate from this to go to the psychology of thinking that the Palestinian problems and the frustration is because they want to change the name from a Palestinian Authority to a Palestinian state, I'm afraid that this will backfire," Mr. Erekat said.

He said that if Palestinians found, the day after such a state was declared, that Israeli forces still controlled checkpoints between Palestinian cities, "I'm afraid that you're gong to have a bigger explosion than you're having now."

With the Bush administration exploring new diplomatic options, Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign minister, said today that he had resumed his contacts with Palestinian leaders, with Mr. Sharon's permission. Calling these contacts "just initial probes," he told Israel radio that he was not speaking to Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, with whom he shares a Nobel Peace Prize for the Oslo peace accords.

For months, Mr. Peres has been promoting a peace plan based on the immediate creation of a Palestinian state in a limited part of the West Bank and Gaza, to be followed by negotiations over the final borders.

Palestinians have resisted the approach by Mr. Peres because they fear that a declaration of even a limited state would ease international pressure for Israel's return to the 1967 borders, with some modifications.

That is a message that Palestinians officials are sending clearly to their own people. In remarks published this week in the newspaper Al-Ayyam, Yasir Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian minister of information and culture, strongly criticized the idea of an interim state, which he said would serve only to reinforce "cantons" in Palestinian areas.

"As far as we are concerned the issue is not the declaration of a state," he was quoted as saying. "Our top priority is bringing about an end to the occupation."

He said that no international guarantees would persuade Palestinians that after the declaration of a state Israel would withdraw from the remaining territory. "We have had bitter and sufficient experience with the Israeli occupation," he said, "because their pledges happen to be a total illusion that serves as cover for keeping the occupation and expending settlements."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/14/international/14CND-MIDE.html

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