Quartet may endorse Palestine state based on '67 borders

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli government secretary Zvi Hauser US and European diplomats warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Middle East Quartet may endorse a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with occupied

East Jerusalem as its capital should Netanyahu fail to provide a peace plan. The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that the quartet comprising the US, the EU, the UN and Russia are pressing Netanyahu to come up with his peace plan and end the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, failing which they would act on their own to jumpstart the peace process.
Postponed meeting

The daily said that the Israeli government under Netanyahu has strongly opposed the move to endorse a Palestinian state. US and EU diplomats commented on the postponement of last week's meeting of international powers in Berlin, where Israel was given breathing space, but pressure has been building on Netanyahu to come up with a peace initiative. "The Israelis are facing a bit of pressure with the way things are proceeding, where people are starting to look to the US for some kind of action," said a EU diplomat. Netanyahu and his aides have frequently made short statements suggesting that a peace initiative would be presented by late May during his visit to the US when he is expected to address the Congress. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had earlier said that international patience over the stalled peace process was growing thin and that recent unrest in the Arab world made a resolution of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict more pressing.

Israeli top officials had earlier offered the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) a state with temporary borders on areas covering up to 60 per cent of the West Bank, but the PNA had rejected the offer, affirming its stand that there was no room to consider such offers since it sought a permanent solution that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

A senior official at the PNA told Gulf News that the credibility of the Quartet and the international community would be on the line by September when the PNA planned to approach the UN Security Council and General Assembly to gain recognition for a Palestinian state. The official stressed that the PNA's diplomatic confrontation with Israel has been successful, giving the world community no chance to skip the issue of an independent Palestinian state, a reality that was now staring at Israel. The official also stressed that the PNA would not reject any peace proposal including any suggestion from Netanyahu but was strongly opposed to any unilateral moves or offers that aimed for a Palestinian state with temporary borders.