Middle East 'Quartet' to Continue Relationship with Arafat in His Capacity

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Middle East 'Quartet' to Continue Relationship with Arafat in His Capacity

The members of the diplomatic "Quartet" on the Middle East peace process on Tuesday chorused on respect of Palestinian people in their choice of leaders.

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The members of the diplomatic "Quartet" on the Middle East peace process on Tuesday chorused on respect of Palestinian people in their choice of leaders.

Representatives of the United Nations, United States, Russian Federation and European Union met Tuesday in New York on the recent developments in the Middle East, they reiterated their commitment on backing reform efforts by the Palestinian Authority and called on Israel to take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.

Responding to questions about Palestinian leadership at a press conference after the meeting, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the members did not spend much time on "individual" topics.

"Our concern right now is not about individual, but about the difficult situation there," he said.

"We spent most of our time talking about the task force that wehave set up, the working group that will be within that task force... so most of our time was spent on real concrete things, we did not spend a great deal of time on personalities."

Pressed by reporters, the secretary said the Palestinian leadership "is a choice of decision that ultimately will have to be made by the Palestinian people."

The US seems to be alone in thinking that Arafat should step aside, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan repeated his support for the Palestinian leader, saying the UN "still recognize Chairman Arafat and we will continue to deal with him until the Palestinians decided otherwise."

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the choice of Palestinian leaders is their "sovereignty rights."

"It is only for the Palestinians to decide who they want to have as their leaders," he said, "Chairman Arafat is the legitimately elected leader of the Palestinian people, while he isin his capacity, we will continue to maintain our relationship with him."

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, whose country is holding the EU's rotating presidency, also said it is up to the Palestinian people to decide who is their own leader.

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