A 17-year-old Palestinian was killed late Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, when a tank shell hit his house in the area of Khan Younis, Palestinian doctors and witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Israel Radio reported Wednesday that despite European pressure, the Bush administration will announce this week that it will hold off officially presenting its "road map for Middle East peace" plan until after Israel's January 28 general elections.
The U.S.-EU-UN-Russian diplomatic "Quartet" is to meet Friday in Washington for talks which were to have featured the presentation of the road map, a draft version of which was shown to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during his last visit to Washington.
According to the Radio, the U.S. administration will issue a declaration stating that the publication of the road map was postponed for two reasons: first, the elections in Israel and the period of formation of a new government that can give a response to the proposal; second, significant differences of opinion between the EU and Washington over the details of the road map.
Meanwhile, the European Union's foreign policy chief on Tuesday lamented the lack of progress by Middle East mediators and said he longed for an American partner to help work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"On the Middle East, I think that there has not been the necessary momentum. The road map is very clear but we have not been able to move the train out of the station a single inch," Javier Solana said. "I would very very much like to have somebody with me, working together (from the United States)," he added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
