RI urges Israel, Palestine to implement peace `roadmap'

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian government urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to move forward and implement an international "road map" for peace in the Middle East, which envisages the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

"We welcome the announcement of the road map for Palestine and Israel, but perhaps it is overdue," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty A Natalegawa told the Jakarta Post over the weekend.

He said that the Indonesian government welcomed the commitment of the Palestinian government to implement the plan.

He then called on the Israeli government to implement the road map without setting any conditions.

If the plan is implemented fully and a Palestinian state is born in 2005, it would improve the image of the United States and its allies in the eyes of the Muslim world, he said.

"It would show that the U.S. and its allies do not apply different standards for problems that have become concerns for Muslim countries," he said.

The international road map, drawn up by the diplomatic quartet of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, aims to create a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.

The road map calls for Israel immediately to freeze all settlement growth and for the Palestinians to cease all attacks and to end all incitements to violence.

Diplomats handed a copy of the road map to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas last week.

However, Middle East expert Riza Sihbudi of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said the road map had weaknesses that left the future of Palestine unclear.

"It is still unclear what the form of the Palestinian state will be, and there are some indications that Palestinians will not get full independence," he said.

Riza also said he thought the Israeli government might try to delay the creation of a Palestinian state by setting conditions for the implementation of the road map.

"It is all right if the Israeli government demands that Palestinians end the violence, but it will be too much if Israel requires the dissolution of the radical group Hamas there," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon has fueled Palestinian suspicions by saying militants must be disarmed and jailed before he begins scrapping settlement outposts, though both of these steps are part of the plan.

The premier has also made clear that he will accept only a truncated Palestinian state with limited sovereignty, far less than what Palestinians are demanding.