Powell to meet with authors of Geneva accord
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While attending a NATO meeting in Belgium Thursday, Powell said he would meet later in the week with architects of a symbolic Mideast peace plan.
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(CNN) -- Despite Israel's strong objections, U.S. Secretary of State Colin PoweIl said he will be meeting Friday with architects of the symbolic Geneva peace initiative, but stressed the U.S. position on the Middle East process -- embodied in the so-called "road map" peace plan -- isn't changing.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Belgium, where he met Thursday with fellow NATO officials, Powell said the United States remains "strongly committed to the road map" and "we will not go anywhere either on the road map or any other plan that someone might have unless terror is brought to an end."
His remarks came as Palestinian factions began cease-fire talks in Cairo, Egypt. (Full story)
Former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo were the Geneva plan's architects. Israeli leftist opposition figures and some Palestinians close to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat attended the signing ceremony. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority supports the plan. (Full story)
Israel criticized Powell for pursuing a meeting with the accord founders, but the secretary of state said this does not change the road map goal -- a U.S. vision of an Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and the steps both sides must fulfill to move the plan along.
The Bush administration has called for ending Palestinian terrorism and a transformed, progressive government with new leadership. And the United States has called for Israel to exercise caution with the Palestinian population and stop building Jewish settlements.
Despite the road map plan, Powell said it is "reasonable" and "appropriate" for him to meet with the accord's architects and others who have ideas to move along the peace process.
"That is not to say there are not other ideas out there that people have. This is a very difficult issue. So as ideas emerge from whatever source, it seems to me not inappropriate to listen to the authors and proponents of these ideas to see what they are saying and to take it into account."
The Geneva plan calls, among other things, for Israel to withdraw from all but about 2 percent of the West Bank, a divided Jerusalem serving as capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state, and an end to attacks by Palestinian groups on Israeli civilians.
