George Bush will throw his full political weight behind the long-expected road map for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, according to sources close to Tony Blair.
President Bush has already agreed to publish the road map when the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and his government are endorsed by the Palestinian legislative council.
Blair believes he has a commitment from Bush that he will not leave the document to lie fallow after its publication, or allow it to be subject to endless negotiations by the Israelis.
At the end of two days of talks between the two leaders at Camp David on Thursday, Blair stressed that Israeli security fears were being eased by Saddam Hussein’s gradual loss of control in Iraq.
Britain is also promising to use its influence over Iran and Syria to reduce support for Palestinian militant groups.
But Israel’s intelligence and military establishment is secretly drafting an alternative plan for a Palestinian state if the road map should fail or prove unacceptable.
The US road map — based on Bush’s call for a ‘two-state solution’ — envisions the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel within three years of its adoption.
At Camp David, Blair said: ”The destination is a final and comprehensive settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict by 2005.”
Much of his private discussion with Bush was on the need for action in the Middle East, with Blair arguing that a peace settlement was the best way to bolster international institutions including the EU and the UN.
Israelis and Palestinians have already seen the plan. The Israelis want more than 100 amendments made to it.
Bush said he would ”welcome contributions” from both sides, and that he would encourage the Israelis and Palestinians to discuss the plan together — meaning it is up for negotiation. But now Bush appears to be willing to stick to the principle of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Bush’s tougher stance is likely to infuriate Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, who has hinted he would like to drop the road map in favour of a new plan agreed with only the US.
It emerged yesterday that the director of Israel’s national security council and former Mossad chief, Ephraim Halevy, and the defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, have been circulating a draft of a proposed bilateral settlement in which the Palestinians would waive their right to return to land inside Israel’s 1967 borders and declare an end to the conflict, in return for a loosely defined state.
The plan, called Aspects of an Israeli Political Initiative, officially remains secret. But it has been in the works for several months in the belief that the aftermath of the Iraq war will provide an opportunity for the Israelis to impose their own version of a final settle ment. Israeli army radio reported that a group of officials discussed introducing the plan if the Americans refuse to accept proposed Israeli amendments to the road map.
Revelations about the secret draft have created fury in parts of the political establishment, with some civilian officials privately despairing at the army involving itself so closely in politics.
But it is highly unlikely that Halevy or General Mofaz would have acted without the knowledge of Sharon.
Yesterday, Gen Mofaz declined to discuss the plan in an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. But he said it will be presented to Sharon within days.
”The work that we are doing along with the director of the national security council will be finished this week and we will present it to the prime minister. It is being done in co ordination with the prime minister, and the subject of the Palestinians in the paper is based on President Bush’s speech,” he said.
The revelations have also privately frustrated the foreign diplomats pushing the Bush road map.
”It is no surprise the Israelis are drawing up their own peace plan,” said a diplomatic source.
”Part of it is a negotiating tactic to try and pressure the Quartet to accept the changes Israel wants.
What is worrying is that it is led by the army. The military is very keen to keep a strong presence in the West Bank even after there’s a Palestinian state. They want to be on its borders, they want to control access.”
Israel’s foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, has followed Blair to America to slow the momentum toward implementing the road map.
He will argue that it should not be released until after the war in Iraq and that it should then be open to amendments.
The most controversial of these is the dropping of a commitment to an independent Palestinian state in favour of one ”with some attributes of sovereignty.” – Guardian Unlimited Â