Quartet calls on Israel to withdraw from Gaza
Quartet seeking to revive Mideast 'road map'
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Middle East Quartet said Tuesday that it had taken "positive note" of an Israeli plan to disengage from the Palestinians, and called on Israel to follow through on the plan's call for a full withdrawal from Gaza.
After meeting for more than two hours to discuss the plan set forth last month by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, representatives from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations agreed to "reaffirm our commitment to our shared vision of two states living side by side in peace and security," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters.
Sharon's plan called for the removal of all Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza and the dismantling of four settlements and outposts in the northern West Bank by 2005. Sharon's Likud party rejected his disengagement plan in a nonbinding referendum Sunday.
Annan -- reading from a document prepared by the foreign ministers -- said they had taken "positive note" of Sharon's announced intention to withdraw from all Gaza settlements.
"This initiative, which must lead to a full Israeli withdrawal and complete end of occupation in Gaza, can be a step towards achieving the two-state vision and could restart progress on the road map," Annan said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the withdrawal must be complete.
"We said very clearly that the withdrawal has to be total; it has to be the end of the occupation," Solana said.
Annan also expressed concern over the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. Israelis say it is necessary to halt terrorist attacks by Palestinians.
Palestinian leaders have opposed the barrier and President Bush's endorsement of it, saying that it amounts to an illegitimate land grab by Israelis and an attempt by Sharon to unilaterally set the borders between Israel and a Palestinian state, rather than negotiating with them as part of a final settlement.
The Palestinians also charge that the barrier violates the so-called "road map" to Mideast peace, the series of confidence-building measures and negotiations designed to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, existing side-by-side in peace with Israel.
"We continue to note with great concern the actual and proposed route of the barrier, particularly as it results in a confiscation of Palestinian land, cuts off the movement of people and goods and undermines Palestinian trust in the road map process by appearing to prejudge the final borders of the future Palestinian state," Annan said.
Annan cautioned against further unilateral moves by either side.
Any final settlement, he said, "must be mutually agreed to by Israelis and Palestinians" in accordance with U.N. resolutions.
A senior EU official said the foreign ministers' document supports the Sharon plan as a possible opportunity to rejuvenate the road map, but sticks to the principles that are important to the quartet -- especially that "the final-status issues cannot be prejudged and must be negotiated in final-status talks."
The official said the quartet had the United States "clarify" that position about final-status negotiations, after mixed messages were sent in a Bush-Sharon meeting in April.
At a White House news briefing after the meeting with Sharon, Bush said "realities on the ground" dictated that Israel should be able to keep some settlements in any future peace agreement.
"The Quartet statement is much clearer than the U.S. has been," the official said.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Bush-Sharon meeting helped reinvigorate the road map.
 |  U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan discusses the road map for Middle East peace Tuesday in New York. |
"What what we have done here today is note the new opportunity that exists for progress in the Middle East because, for the first time, we have an Israeli prime minister who has stood up and said that he wants to evacuate settlements," Powell said.
"We view this as an opportunity to be seized," he said.
In addition to calling on Palestinians to halt terrorist attacks against Israelis, the quartet called on the Israeli authorities "to exert maximum efforts to avoid civilian casualties" and to take steps to ease the economic plight of Palestinians by easing the movement of goods and people within the West Bank and Gaza.
Toward that goal, the group will work with the World Bank and U.N. special coordinators and an ad hoc liaison committee to meet Palestinian humanitarian, economic and infrastructure needs are met, Annan said.
A senior U.N. official said the document raises hope of movement on the issue.
"There was a sense that a few months ago they had hit bottom" because the road map was going nowhere, the official said.
