UNITED
NATIONS, April 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The United
Nations and the European Union rebuked Thursday, April 15, any
unilateral change to Israel’s borders, a day after U.S. President
George W. Bush recognized Israel’s claim to occupied Palestinian
lands.
U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan stressed that any peace deal should be
negotiated based on U.N. resolutions - implicitly criticizing Bush’s
statements Israel should be able to keep some Arab land captured in
the 1967 war, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The
Secretary General reiterates his position that final status issues
should be determined in negotiations between the parties based on
relevant Security Council resolutions," Annan's spokesman
Stephane Dujarric said.
"He
strongly believes that they should refrain from taking any steps that
would preempt the outcome of such talks."
U.N.
resolutions call for Israel to end occupation of occupied Arab,
including Palestinian, territories captured after the 1967 war.
Even
the U.S.-drafted roadmap blueprint stipulates the establishment of a
Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel, which is urged to pull out
to pre-1967 borders.
Breaking
with a decades-old U.S. policy, Bush also said after talks with
Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon Wednesday Palestinian refugees should not
be allowed to return to their homes in what is today Israel.
The
Palestinian Authority estimates at more than 6.5 million the number of
Palestinian refugees and their descendents, the world’s oldest and
largest refugee population and more than one-fourth of the entire
refugee population worldwide.
It
said that in 1967, approximately 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes
in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip when Israel launched a war against
Jordan and Egypt, capturing and occupying the West Bank, including
Al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip (the Occupied Palestinian Territories).
Neither
the 1948 refugees nor the 1967 displaced persons have been allowed by
Israel to return to their homes in what is now Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian Liberation Organization said
on its website.
Not
‘Recognized’
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"A
permanent settlement must also include an agreed, just, fair and
realistic solution to the refugee issue," Solana said
|
In
a related development, the European Union reiterated Thursday, April
15, opposition to any unilateral change to Middle East borders.
Irish
Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country holds the rotating E.U.
presidency, said the established position of the European body it that
it "will not recognize any change to the pre-1967 borders other
than those arrived at by agreement between the parties".
He
added that the Middle East roadmap peace plan states "that a
final and comprehensive permanent status agreement that ends the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict must include an agreed, just, fair and
realistic solution to the refugee issue".
Cowen
said that European foreign ministers would discuss the latest
developments at their semi-annual informal meeting Friday and Saturday
in Tullamore, near Dublin.
Earlier,
E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana stressed that any permanent
change to the pre-1967 territorial arrangements must have the backing
of both sides.
"A
permanent settlement must also include an agreed, just, fair and
realistic solution to the refugee issue," said stressed in a
statement.
Solana
also underlined that the European body "remains committed to a
negotiated agreement resulting in two viable, sovereign and
independent states, Israel and Palestine, as the only way to achieve a
permanent peace and an end to the occupation that began in 1967.
"Final
status issues can only be resolved by mutual agreement between the
parties," Solana concluded.
New
Belfour
Bush
told a press conference, with Sharon to his side, "realities on
the ground and in the region have changed greatly" and should be
reflected in any final peace deal on issues as the return of refugees
and the creation of the Palestinian state.
He
said any Palestinian refugees who wanted to return should be
accommodated on Palestinian land not inside what is now Israel.
Bush
claimed the solution to the Palestinian refugee problem "will
need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state and
the settling of Palestinian refugees there - rather than Israel".
During
their White House summit, Bush gave Sharon a written
pledge that Israel will not be asked in the future to withdraw
to the 1949 cease-fire lines (the Green Line) on the West Bank.
