Roundup: Quartet Urges End to Violence, Implementation of Roadmap

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 23, 2003

Roundup: Quartet Urges End to Violence, Implementation of Roadmap

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The international quartet on Sunday called for ending the 33-month Israeli-Palestinian violence and implementing a US-backed roadmap peace plan at the World Economic Forum, which opened Saturday in Jordanian's Dead Sea resort Shuneh.

At a joint press conference of the quartet, namely the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, UN chief Kofi Annan read a statement expressing the quartet's deep concern over the recent Israeli military actions against the Palestinian civilians.

The quartet criticized Israel for killing Palestinian civilians,urging Israel to make "every possible" effort to support the Palestinian government and ease the suffering of the Palestinians.Annan indicated that if the Palestinians do not feel change in their life, especially the freedom of movement and practicing their economic activities, they will not encourage peace operation.

The quartet also called on the Palestinian National Authority(PNA) to make all efforts to swiftly curb terror activities of individuals and groups against Israel.

"Such actions don't enhance security and undermine trust and prospects for cooperation," Annan said.

"It is obvious that the Palestinians cannot combat terrorism and end violence without Israel's active cooperation," he added.

The quartet calls on all states in the region and around the world to end immediately any form of support to groups and individuals that use terror and violence to diminish the chances for peace.

It asked both sides to take measures to break the vicious cycle of attack and counter-attack and make "courageous" efforts to apply the internationally-drafted roadmap, which envisions the establishment of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel inpeace and security by 2005.

Annan read the statement after a meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and senior European Union officials.

The quartet gathering was aimed at salvaging the peace plan,faltered by renewed conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The peace quartet also welcomed the discussions between Israel and the PNA on transfer of security responsibility in Gaza and the West Bank town of Bethlehem,calling on both sides to reach anagreement as soon as possible.

At the press conference, Powell expressed regret over "continued loss of life in the Middle East," but said the Israeli concern about "a ticking bomb" could be understood.

He said the hope for peace will become a reality only with the help of people in the Middle East, warning there is no illusion about how hard the implementation of the roadmap will be.

"Every day, there are events happening, but we have no choice other than moving forward with the roadmap," said the top US diplomat.

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holdsthe current rotating presidency of the European Union, said "we will not allow the roadmap to be undermined."

The quartet meeting also reaffirmed commitment to a just,comprehensive and lasting settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict,including progress toward peace between Israel and Syria, and between Israel and Lebanon.

It stressed that such a peace would be based on the foundation of the 1991 Madrid conference, the principle of land-for-peace,relevant UN resolutions and the Saudi initiative endorsed by the Beirut Arab summit, which called for Israeli withdrawal from Arablands in exchange for normalization of ties between Israel and the Arab countries.

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