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U.S. Urged to Step Down in Mideast http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020403/ap_on_re_eu/eu_mideast_9 Wed Apr 3,10:32 AM ET By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer LUXEMBOURG - Declaring American mediation in the Middle East a failure, the EU executive urged the United States on Wednesday to stand down as primary peacemaker and let a broad alliance of nations mediate a cease-fire and a durable Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. The call came as foreign ministers from the European Union were gathering for an urgent session here about the violence in the Middle East, where Israel has launched a large-scale assault in the West Bank after a string of Palestinian suicide bombings. "It is clear (American) mediation efforts have failed and we need new mediation" before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict balloons into an all-out regional war, European Commission President Romano Prodi told reporters in Brussels. Prodi said the ministers' meeting should endorse a call for new negotiations, involving not only the United States, but also the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, moderate Arab states, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "We cannot get out of this situation with any other, partial solutions," said Prodi, who heads the EU's executive body. "Further escalation of the crisis must be avoided at all costs." U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni remains in the region striving to implement a truce plan authored last June by CIA chief George Tenet. The U.S. Embassy hasn't released any information on his activities in recent days, and no meetings were scheduled with either Israelis or Palestinians. The United States has dominated mediation since 1993 Israeli-Palestinian accords. The EU, the largest donor of aid to the Palestinians, has long sought to play a greater Mideast peace role but has always been stymied by the United States and Israel, which sees some European governments as pro-Arab. President Bush has backed Israel's military operation, calling it self-defense. Meanwhile, the Vatican warned Wednesday of the "dramatic situation" in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where Israeli troops took control on Tuesday and battled Palestinian gunmen, some of whom fled into the Church of the Nativity, marking the site where tradition says Jesus was born. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Holy See expresses "unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, from whichever side it comes" and criticized "injustice and humiliation imposed on the Palestinian people" and reprisals that "only increase the sense of frustration and hatred." Prodi reiterated EU demands that Israel withdraw from the West Bank, end its siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah and enable the Palestinian leader to move around freely. The EU has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal that European diplomats take Arafat into exile in Europe. "Arafat will leave when he wants to leave, on his own volition," said Prodi. French President Jacques Chirac suggested the EU foreign ministers send a delegation to meet with Sharon and Arafat to try to stop the escalation. Meanwhile, Switzerland warned Wednesday that it was reconsidering its economic and military ties with Israel because of the West Bank military operation. The government was concerned about violations of international humanitarian law by Israel, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Muriel Berset Kohen without elaboration. Switzerland is a buyer of Israeli-made military hardware. _____________________________________ Copyright � 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright � 2002 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.yahoo.com ===== Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts & ends at the colonnade between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
