The chief U.N. envoy to the Middle East said Monday that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has broken down and added he fears even worse bloodletting lies ahead.
"The recent cycle of terror attacks and extrajudicial killings has broken the Palestinian cease-fire and brought the process to a standstill," U.N. Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the Security Council at the start of an open meeting to discuss the troubled region.
But "while the situation is grave, it is alarmist to speak of the demise of the peace process," he warned, according to the AP.
The Palestinians are urging the United Nations to demand that Israel ensures Yasser Arafat's safety and key Security Council members are urging both parties to implement the peace plan known as the "road map."
Roed-Larsen stressed that Arafat was the democratically elected Palestinian leader who "embodies Palestinian identity and national aspirations. He is now far from irrelevant."
If the course to peace outlined in the road map is abandoned, he warned, "we would cede to those individuals and groups that do not want peace."
Roed-Larsen accused both Israelis and Palestinians of failing to "seriously and actively" address each other's concerns.
"For Israelis, that concern is security and freedom from terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority failed again to grasp control of the security situation," he said.
"For Palestinians, the core concern is an assurance that the peace process will lead to the end of the occupation and the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders," he said. "The ongoing settlement activity and continued construction of the separation wall cause Palestinians to wonder whether we are moving in the opposite direction to that goal. In addition, Israel has never fully endorsed the Road Map."
Without a major change in the situation, Roed-Larsen said, "further deterioration, resulting in major bloodshed, seem inevitable."
The council scheduled the open meeting Monday amid mounting criticism of the Israel's security Cabinet's decision Thursday to "remove" Arafat in a manner and at a time to be decided.
The council began consultations on a resolution drafted by the Palestinians late Friday and then adjourned until Monday, despite Palestinian pressure for a quick vote.
Declaring that the region now stood at the crossroads between recommitment to peace and descent into major bloodshed, Roed-Larsen, called for determined international engagement and a bold acceleration of the road map to jump start efforts to resolve the crisis.
"I wish to note that the Road Map contains provisions for acceleration or slowing down of the process," he said.
"Given the current situation, it might be appropriate to speed up the Road Map," Roed-Larsen said, adding that viewing the situation in hindsight, the process had moved too slowly.
"Bold steps, related to settlements and security, and involving increased activity from the international community might be necessary in order to improve the environment and assist to jump start a resumption of the process," he said in his briefing.
"We are now crossing dire and stormy straits," he declared. "At this difficult time we have no choice but to increase our efforts to implement the Road Map."
"We must reassert the principle of parallelism by beginning to end both terrorism and occupation," he declared.
(Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
