Quartet meets to discuss Sharon plan
The European Union has announced that the Quartet committee on the Middle East will be held in Berlin on April 28 in order to discuss the plan of the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw from Gaza and the American position concerning it.
The EU external and security affairs coordinator Javier Solana said that the Roadmap is still the base to settle the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. A matter which was confirmed by the Irish prime minister Brian Cown who warned Israel that it has to establish peace with its enemies and not only with its friends.
The announcement on the meeting of the Quartet comes after a Russian invitation to convene an urgent meeting for this committee to discuss the separation plan of the Israeli prime minister with the Palestinians.
This call, however, was the essence of talks held yesterday in Moscow between the Russian foreign minister Serjy Lavrove and his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath who arrived in Moscow to discuss latest developments on the Palestinian arena.
To this effect, the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder underlined the importance of the Palestinian role in the Middle East peace negotiations.
In a press conference he had held with Schroeder, Mubarak said in Hanover that "implementation of the roadmap should be proceeded through getting the Palestinians involved." For his part, the German chancellor said that the Palestinians have the right to demand no decisions to be taken without their consent.
