The Hindu : U.S. envoy unveils plan for peace

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 31, 2002

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International

U.S. envoy unveils plan for peace

CAIRO May 30. The U.S. West Asia envoy, William Burns, today said he would try to help the Palestinians prepare for statehood as he launched Washington's "three-track" strategy to revive their peace talks with Israel.

Mr. Burns said he told the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Maher, here about the U.S. commitment to "a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the crisis between Palestinians and Israelis, which involved movement on three tracks."

Mr. Burns, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near East affairs, said the U.S. President, George W Bush and the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, had asked him to consult with Arab allies on the first two tracks. "First, to renew a serious political process aimed at the two-states solution. Second, to support Palestinian efforts to build strong institutions in preparation for statehood," he told reporters after talks with Mr. Maher. The third track, "to ensure effective Palestinian performance on security," was the task of the CIA Director, George Tenet, who was due to visit the region shortly, Mr. Burns said. "It is extremely important to make progress on all three of these tracks because the truth is that it's impossible to foresee lasting progress on security without a restoration of political hope and impossible for me to foresee progress in the political process without security," Mr. Burns said.

The U.S. envoy said Mr. Tenet and he would return to Washington before the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, travels to Camp David for talks with Mr. Bush on the crisis.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops left the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, ending the latest of a series of brief incursions into Palestinian territory the army says are meant to pre-empt Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

The force of three tanks, about 20 armoured personnel carriers and some 20 jeeps, entered Hebron before daybreak and left a few hours later, witnesses said. Palestinian security officials said the Israeli military arrested three persons during the incursion, one of them a local leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas. It was not immediately clear who the other two were.

On Wednesday, the Israelis staged a quick raid on Beitunia, a suburb of Ramallah and were holding Bethlehem and surrounding villages and refugee camps for a fourth day, keeping residents in their homes as they searched for militants, explosives and weapons.

In Beit Sahour, next to Bethlehem, soldiers detained a woman who was "on her way to carry out a suicide bombing attack," the military said, identifying her as 20-year-old Arin Ahmed. Israel Radio said she planned to bomb the Israeli city of Rishon Letzion last week but changed her mind at the last moment. On May 22, a 16-year-old Palestinian blew himself up in Rishon Letzion, killing himself and two Israelis.

The Israelis lifted the curfew in Bethlehem for a few hours on Wednesday to allow residents to buy food. — AFP, AP

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