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Sharon to present peace 'road map' to CabinetPowell, Rice vow Israel's security concerns will be addressed
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Peace talks among the U.S., Israeli and Palestinian leadership edged closer to possibility Friday after moves by the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The White House has not publicly said that a trilateral meeting is certain, but Bush administration officials acknowledged that plans are in the works for such a summit. One official said the meeting was looking "more and more likely." The White House has been trying to arrange a three-way summit since Sharon decided to postpone a visit to Washington scheduled for this week during which he was to have met with Bush. Sharon delayed that meeting after recent suicide bombings in Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice issued a brief pronouncement Friday that had been carefully negotiated with Israel. It stated that the United States shared Israel's concerns about the proposed peace plan and would "address them fully and seriously in the implementation." That announcement prompted Sharon, who had withheld his approval of the plan, to say Israel is prepared to accept the steps described in the Middle East peace "road map." Sharon most likely will present it to his Cabinet on Sunday, according to a senior Israeli official. Cabinet approval would help clear the way for a summit The Palestinian Authority reacted with optimism to the White House statement, which it called "an important step toward implementation of the road map," and Sharon's acceptance of the road map, which it called "an encouraging initial response." Other Palestinians expressed disappointment with the Powell-Rice pronouncement on Israeli concerns. An adviser to the Palestinians, who did not want to be identified, told CNN on Friday that the statement "is not something at all positive. ... We are pleased there are no changes to the text" of the "road map." However, the Palestinians are "frustrated ... [they] were not able to present their reservations," the official said. Michael Tarazi, a legal adviser to the Palestinians, said that "many Palestinians are now saying this is just another delaying tactic, that basically Israel will use the implementation period to continue its delaying tactics as it has done ever since the road map was issued." The United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations drafted the road map, designed to halt violence in the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority had endorsed it without reservations and asked Israel to do the same. Israel had previously requested at least a dozen changes to the document and balked at the plan's proposal to allow Palestinian refugees, who fled or were forced from their homes during the Mideast wars, to return inside Israel. The White House said its statement was critical to securing Sharon's support and that any changes would be negotiated with both the Israelis and Palestinians. Dov Weisglass, Sharon's chief of staff, met Wednesday with Rice in Washington to discuss Israeli concerns. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom also has been in close touch with American officials, a senior Israeli official said. Israeli negotiations with the United States also included a Bush-Sharon conversation this week. Without the Sharon endorsement, "the road map was a dead-end," one Bush administration official said. Acknowledging Palestinian frustration, the official said, "the alternative was nothing. This allows us to start the process and gets Israel on the record as wanting to move forward under the road map." The road map calls for a sequence of security, economic and political steps leading to a provisional Palestinian state by next year, and then "final-status" negotiations to set the borders of an independent Palestine by 2005.
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