United States Secretary of State Colin Powell has called on Israel to dismantle illegal outposts in the West Bank during a meeting with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom, Israel’s national radio reported on Friday.
Powell insisted the Israeli government ”continues dismantling” wildcat settlements in line with the US-backed road map to peace, which aims to stop the violence to allow for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel by 2005.
Shalom and Powell met on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
Since June, the number of outposts has stayed virtually unchanged and may even be slightly on the rise.
A dozen such illegal small settlements have been dismantled by the army during heavily publicised media campaigns, only making way for radical Jewish settlers to return and take over the premises.
The road map says about 60 outposts created since Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power in March 2001 must be taken apart.
The peace blueprint, drafted by the so-called ”Mideast quartet” — the US, Russia, the European Union and the UN — was launched in early June.
The quartet is slated to meet in New York on Friday and Powell told Sharon ahead of the meeting that ”the road map is not dead. It is still alive and ways must be found to implement it.” — Sapa-AFP