The European Union (EU) has produced a document on the Middle East, which links the creation of an independent Palestinian state to international and Arab guarantees for the security of Israel, an Arab official told AFP in Amman Sunday.
The document drawn up by the EU's envoy to the Middle East, Miguel Angel Moratinos, was discussed with Arab officials during the ministerial meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership organization Euromed in Brussels on November 6, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The EU spells out the basic tenets of a peace agreement -- Resolutions 242 and 338 of the UN Security Council are the fundamentals of a political solution based on the establishment of a Palestinian state and the right of Israel to live in peace and security, the source added.
The one-and-a-half page document describes the Palestinian state as "viable, democratic and independent," the official stressed.
On the other side, the document underlines the need to assure Israel's security, an assurance which will be given by "the international community, but also by the Arab countries," said the official.
Jordan has been consulted about the document in its role as president of the Arab summit, the source added.
King Abdullah II said in London earlier this month that the whole of the Arab world should offer Israel collective security guarantees, in return for the building of a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, heading a high level diplomatic whirlwind tour of the Middle East which started Saturday, said that Israel's security was the essential condition to any peace solution in the Middle East.
"There is no solution for the Middle East if in this solution we cannot guarantee, with the whole international community, the security of Israel," he said in an interview published in the Jerusalem Post.
"There is no peace without security," he said.
On his return from the Euromed meeting, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for his part said that the European Union was bringing "strong and obvious" support to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The European document has not yet been adopted by all the countries concerned, and could still be "revised" after a speech due Monday by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the official said.
The EU mission arrives in Jordan on Monday, after visiting Cairo, the Palestinian territories and Israel. It is also to go to Lebanon and Syria.
ISRAELI-BELGIAN TIES SLIDE AS MAYOR OF OCCUPIED JERUSALEM BRANDS VISITING PM 'BASTARD'
Already strained relations between Belgium and Israel worsened further Sunday as Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert branded visiting PM Verhofstadt a "bastard" and urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to meet him, reported AFP.
The high-powered EU delegation headed by Verhofstadt had already received a frosty reception in Israel Sunday as it arrived to try to kick-start the ailing peace process, just hours after Israel said its troops had pulled out of another Palestinian town, said the agency.
"He is a bastard, and Sharon must refuse to meet him," Olmert told Israeli public radio, referring to Verhofstadt.
"Under humanitarian and justice pretexts, a violent anti-Israeli campaign with strong anti-Semitic undertones is currently being led in Belgium," said Olmert, a leading figure in Sharon's right-wing Likud Party.
And an Israeli official described the EU as "pro-Arab and anti-Israel."
Israel had already protested Friday against Belgian national television's airing the same day of a BBC documentary called The Accused, which debates whether Sharon should be considered a war criminal over his role in the 1982 massacres in Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, when he was defense minister.
Hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children in the refugee camps were slaughtered by Israeli allies, in a prolonged assault critics say Sharon must have known about but failed to prevent.
In a further twist Sunday, press reports said Israel was helping a group of Belgian Jews planning to sue Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a Belgian court, in a riposte to the legal action against Sharon.
The daily Haaretz said Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein had asked officials of the defense ministry for access to documents on Arafat's own alleged role in war crimes to boost the Jews' case.
The Belgian Jews are seeking to sue Arafat, particularly over the killing of 11 Israeli athletes by a Palestinian group at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, and the death of an American Jewish passenger in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985.
A justice ministry spokesman told AFP Sunday that Israel was not a party to the suit, but did not deny the Haaretz report.
Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to Brussels, Shaul Amor, has written to the minister in charge of public television to protest at the broadcast of the BBC documentary, and the channel had said he accused the station of conducting a "hostile policy towards Israel."
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "We regard as unacceptable the decision by the RTBF (Radio Television Belge Francophone) to air this tendentious documentary, and this only two days ahead of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's visit to Israel."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon also deplored the fact that the broadcast came "as an important hearing by the Belgian judiciary is due to take place in the coming days on the case against Sharon."
Two lawsuits are pending in Belgium against the Israeli leader, alleging that he was guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps. They were brought last June by victims of the massacres and their families and independent parties.
A Belgian court is due to rule on November 28 whether the Belgian investigating magistrate had legal jurisdiction in the case.
SHARON INSISTS ON 7-DAY QUIET; SOLANA DESCRIBES DEMAND ‘STUPIDITY’
Sharon said Sunday afternoon that Israel was sticking to its demand for seven days of quiet in the West Bank and Gaza Strip before implementation of the Mitchell Report, reported Haaretz.
Sharon, who made his remarks in response to a question on the position of the US - to be outlined in Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech Monday - added that his stance had been coordinated with the United States.
Following the press conference, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana referred to Sharon's demand for one week of quiet as "stupidity." Solana said the position of the EU was close to that of the United States, which Powell's speech would reveal.
Sharon called for the heads of the EU to refrain from transferring funds to the Palestinian Authority. "I call on you to assist the Palestinian nation in establishing factories and lending them financial assistance. I also recommend that you not transfer the money to the Palestinian Authority, but directly to the Palestinian people. Money transferred to the PA is used to purchase weapons to be used against Israel."
At a joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, Sharon went on to say that Israel was dealing with "a severe terrorist offensive, forced on us by the PA. Terror and incitement created by PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, who leads a coalition of terror with the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, Fateh, Tanzim, and Force 17 [presidential guards]."
Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met Sunday with the EU delegation, led by Verhofstadt, which is trying to move Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
The high-level EU delegation is urging Jerusalem to support the new American initiative Powell is expected to unveil Monday in Kentucky.
POWELL SAYS POLICY SPEECH INCLUDES US VISION; NO DETAILED PLAN
Al Jazeera satellite channel quoted Powell as saying that his speech will not detail a US peace initiative, but would rather outline US vision for a peace settlement in the region.
AFP had said that US officials were hinting that Washington is preparing a major new Middle East peace initiative which could be unveiled on Monday, when Powell delivers the address.
The speech could outline a new US vision for the future of the region, including an independent Palestinian state, but is unlikely to contain a detailed peace plan, officials have indicated.
The top US diplomat is scheduled to speak at the University of Louisville, in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday.
According to Haaretz, diplomatic sources in Israel were not expecting any "surprises" in the speech.
They agreed, however, that Powell was expected in general terms to set the tone of the American image of the final status agreement, which will be based on a vision for a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel in peace.
UN ENVOY PROPOSES 'GAZA FIRST' CEASEFIRE PLAN
United Nations special envoy Terje Larsen has presented Israel with a new 'Gaza First' ceasefire proposal, whereby Israel will withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, dismantle all settlements there and also withdraw from an additional one percent of territory in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported Sunday, cited by the Tel Aviv-based daily.
But Minister Dan Meridor (Center Party), who met with Larsen, told the UN envoy the plan was unacceptable and would be a prize to those carrying out acts of terror. Before Israel made any concessions, Meridor reportedly told Larsen, the Palestinians had to stop all terror activities.
The relative quiet in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the lower rate of terror attacks is the result of army attacks and not a clampdown by Arafat on terror, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer told the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday morning.
Ben Eliezer told the ministers that last week's arrest of the head of Islamic Jihad's military wing, Mohammed "Norsi" Tualbeh, was an effort to relieve some of the international pressure on Arafat. "We are talking about internal control within the [Palestinian] Authority and not about a new policy of stopping terror and arresting militants," he said.
In Gaza, three Israelis were lightly wounded when Palestinians fired at their vehicle in the Neve Dekalim industrial zone, which is located in the Gush Katif settlement bloc - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
