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Friday March 28, 2003

Mideast peace road map still a matter of speculation

MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON -- As the Palestinians move forward with the confirmation of a new prime minister, many are looking to the White House to see when President Bush will unveil the "road map" toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.

They may be waiting a while.

Administration officials and analysts say that Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's choice for prime minister, will need to show that he has significant authority before Bush takes the next step.

"He needs to appoint his cabinet, get them approved by the legislative council and then he can say 'dayenu' and take the road map," said Stephen Cohen, national scholar for the Israel Policy Forum.

And the question remains as to whether the road map presented will be up for negotiations or will be considered a final draft.

Bush caught many off guard earlier this month when, just days before the war against Iraq began, he announced that the road map would be submitted to the parties after a prime minister with "real authority" was confirmed.

While Jewish leaders were concerned with the timing of the announcement, and the perceived motive of aiding embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair, they were pleased that the controversial road map would still be open to negotiation, according to Bush.

The Israelis have been concerned that the map requires Israel to make concessions without a full cessation of violence, and places too much emphasis on the role of the diplomatic "Quartet" -- the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- that drafted the road map.

For that reason, they had requested and received several delays of the release of the road map, first until after Israel's January elections and then until Prime Minster Ariel Sharon had formed a new government.

Even now that Bush has expressed his interest in expediting the road map, many continue to believe it will not be placed at the top of the administration's agenda.

Officially, the State Department says release of the document will not need to wait for the war's end.

"He wants to release it soon," one State Department official said of the president, "once the new Palestinian prime minister is confirmed and it appears we have moved on the path to creating a new dynamic in the Palestinian leadership."

To that end, the Central Intelligence Agency is creating a mechanism to monitor progress on the conditions of the road map. CIA Director George Tenet created a cease-fire plan in 2001 that was not implemented, and it is believed that the CIA will play a role in the road map. However, it's unclear how deep that role will be, given the CIA's expanded portfolio of work in combating terrorism.

But many believe Bush won't present the map until after significant progress has been made on his main objective in the Middle East, regime change in Iraq.

Edward Abington, a former consul general to Jerusalem who now serves as a political consultant to the Palestinian Authority, says there is much skepticism in the Arab world about Bush's commitment to the road map.

"They're not stupid," Abington said. "They see that the road map announcement was made to help Tony Blair."

The Palestinians believe that when it is released the road map should be a final text, with discussion focused only on implementation. "They think the Israeli objective is to condition the road map so that it never goes anywhere," Abington said.

Some in the State Department agree, if spokesman Richard Boucher's comments last week are any indication.

"The document will be released as the road map, that is the road map and that will be the road map," Boucher said last week. "We'll expect comments, we'll expect discussion of how to implement it."

Cohen says the road map text has become "much refried beans."

"It's a text that has been around for a long time, digested, chewed up and spit out," he said. "They are not going to refry it again before it is put on the plate.''

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