About 70 prominent Israeli and Palestinian politicians, currently out of power, are struggling to come up with a blueprint envisaging "comprehensive peace and partnership" between the two sides, according to former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. "We are working on a new document that seeks to achieve comprehensive peace and partnership," Abed Rabbo said Sunday in remarks to reporters at the end of three days of deliberations at the Dead Sea resort. The new document will supersede the Geneva accord, which was signed in Geneva last December by the two sides.
| And we've seen how well that worked... |
The plan recommended solutions for core issues impeding a final settlement between the Palestinians and Israel, including Jerusalem, frontiers, settlements and refugees. Abed Rabbo, who led the Palestinian team to the new round of talks, indicated the discussions were dominated by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan to quit the Gaza strip and four settlements in northern West Bank before the end of 2005. "We have agreed to adopt the road map as a reference, to refrain from changing plans from time to time as Sharon wants and to stick to the concept of partnership among the Palestinian, Israelis, the Quartet and regional powers, because unilateral solutions will not work," he said. |