New Middle East peace plan sought
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin meets today to discuss the Geneva initiative.
The French Foreign Minister is to meet fellow backers of an alternative plan for peace in the Middle East.
On Wednesday in Paris, Dominique de Villepin will meet with Belgian counterpart Minister Louis Michel, former Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin.
There they will further discuss the so-called “Geneva initiative.”
The meeting takes place as the preferred US-backed “road map” for peace stumbles along, assailed with mounting tit-for-tat violence from both the Israelis and Palestinians.
Under the initiative, there would be shared sovereignty over the disputed area in Jerusalem, with Palestinians holding 97.5 per cent of the West Bank.
In exchange, Palestinian refugees cede their right of return to areas now controlled by Israel.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has yet to formally endorse the plan but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected it outright, insisting the US-backed “roadmap” was the only path to peace.
The French government still abides with the road map, though it encourages any effort to find closure to the violence, a spokesman said.
