Secretary of State Colin Powell has decided to send an envoy to the Middle East in a bid to restart stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace moves. Meanwhile, the head of a high ranking EU delegation sounded optimistic over the result of a Mideast tour due to be wrapped up Monday.
"I have asked Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs William Burns to return to the region," Powell said.
A copy of the speech was distributed in advance to reporters traveling with him, cited by AFP.
Powell signaled that Washington had not discounted the idea of a third-party monitoring force to judge on the ground compliance to commitments undertaken by both parties.
"The United States remains ready to contribute actively to a third party monitoring and verification mechanism acceptable to all parties," Powell said in his speech.
The leading Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations backed international observers to monitor a tattered US-brokered truce in the occupied territories at a meeting in July, but only if both sides agreed.
Israel has objected to such a force and insisted on CIA agents as the only observers to ceasefire. The Palestinians, backed by the Arabs, want a more active role by the EU and the UN.
Powell said that since Israel’s establishment, the US has had an “iron-clad” commitment to Israel’s security.
But he also said that the Israeli occupation “harms the Palestinians,” and reflects badly on the Israelis. He said the Palestinians, who live under siege, military blockades and bombardment of their houses and schools, also need to live in security and peace.
Powell also announced in a speech at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, that he had asked former Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni to serve as a special advisor on Middle East policy.
Zinni would have the "immediate mission of helping the parties to achieve a durable cease-fire and move ahead along the line of the Tenet security work plan and the Mitchell committee report," Powell said.
The Mitchell plan calls for a ceasefire, a six-week cooling off period and a freeze on building of Jewish settlements, accompanied by various confidence-building measures, before a return to political talks.
The Tenet agreement was a ceasefire deal mapped out by George Tenet, head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, designed to calm tensions for the Mitchell plan to go ahead.
Menahwile, chances of re-launching the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians are improving despite the hard line taken by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the head of the European Union peace mission said, as quoted by the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz..
"I have the impression that the Israelis are ready to negotiate... It depends on the continued decline of the violence in the days and weeks ahead," Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told reporters on the plane from Israel to the Syrian capital.
Verhofstadt went into talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus after saying his meeting with Sharon in Jerusalem on Sunday had signaled possible progress.
Verhofstadt was quoted as saying that he had asked " the (Syrian) president to use all his influence in the next days and weeks to have a period of calm on the border of Lebanon and Israel, and in all the region."
The E.U. official was apparently referring to the Hizbollah movement, which has vowed to continue fighting Israeli troops in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
In Jerusalem, the EU delegation had asked Israel to drop its insistence on a seven-day halt to Palestinian violence before it implements an international peace plan. But Sharon rejected the request and also turned down a EU call to release customs duties withheld from the Palestinian Authority, saying the money would be used to buy arms.
The delegation arrived Monday in Beirut for talks with Lebanese officials on the stalled Middle East peace process. The EU delegation is scheduled to meet with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and House Speaker Nabih Berri, official sources said – Albawaba.com
