By Khalid Abu Al Khair
Albawaba.com – Amman
Palestinian sources have revealed that the US administration has lately mapped out a comprehensive peace plan to contain the exploding situation in the Occupied Territories and bring an end to the conflict.
The plan starts with setting mechanisms to implement proposals put forward by CIA director George Tenet, before opening the political file.
The sources said that US President George W. Bush presented the plan to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the latter’s recent visit to Washington.
They said that the American administration sees the solution to the conflict as “one package.”
According to them, Sharon had reservation over two points related to occupied east Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, but he promised to freeze settlement in the West Bank and Gaza, excluding east Jerusalem. The US officials saw his position as “progress,” the sources said, adding that Sharon was expected to reply to the proposals in two weeks.
According to the Palestinian sources, the plan includes the following:
- The Israeli government declares a five-year peace plan under which it accepts a unilateral withdrawal from all occupied lands to the June 1967 Green Line separating Israel and the Palestinian territories.
- Israel and the Palestinian Authority embark jointly on a water project in which water sources are split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank while Israel dependence on Palestinian water is stopped.
- At its own expense and within a year’s deadline, Israel builds a bridge road linking the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
- Israel accepts drawing up a timetable for its pullback in agreement with the PA at a later stage. Both sides will consider dismantling all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, except for three settlement blocs around Jerusalem which will remain under full Israeli control even after the full withdrawal.
- Israel will ask the PA to keep in their present condition all buildings and infrastructure in populated civil areas from which the former withdraws. The Palestinians will open an embassy in West Jerusalem.
- Israel accepts a Palestinian state bordered by the Green Line and free of Jewish settlements in accordance with UN resolution 242.
The US plan makes no mention of the future of occupied east Jerusalem or whether it will be the Palestinian state’s capital, or the fate of more than 3.5 million Palestinian refugees whose right of return is guaranteed by international resolutions.
The sources said that Sharon demanded that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat accept the plan before Israel gives its final word. He also demanded that the region’s leaders be presented with the plan. They said that Arafat was aware of the proposals and had demanded that occupied east Jerusalem be included.
Arafat has reportedly been invited to Washington where he is expected to discuss the proposals with the US administration.
