U.N., E.U. Rebuke Bush’s Support Of Israeli Occupation

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- 1967borders.

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 than6 . 5million 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 in1967 , approximately200 , 000Palestinians 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’

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- 1967borders 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- 1967territorial 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 in1967 .

"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.