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Powell says US honest broker despite Mideast shift
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-16 08:53

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks to the press at the State Department in Washington April 15, 2004. [Reuters]

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking a day after the United States infuriated Arabs with a landmark pro-Israel policy shift, said on Thursday Washington remained an honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians.

In a change that prompted the Arab League to accuse the United States of bias, U.S. President Bush broke with a decades-old policy to say Israeli settlements could stay in parts of the West Bank captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

Powell said the shift simply reflected what past negotiators on both sides had accepted -- that Israel would retain some Jewish settlements expanded over many years on occupied land in any final peace deal.

"I don't think we have abandoned our role as an honest broker at all," the top U.S. diplomat told reporters.

Palestinian masked militants and supporters of Fatah watch as a donkey wearing a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush is walked past during a demonstration in Bureij Refugee Camp, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 15, 2004. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon now can count on unprecedented U.S. backing for his plan to hold on to parts of the West Bank. [AP]

"The reality is such that previous negotiators came to the conclusion that adjustments would be needed and there's no reason to expect that future negotiators will not reach that same conclusion," he added.

It has long been informally recognized that any final settlement would involve a land swap. But that was to occur in the context of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with Palestinians trading those concessions for benefits.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized Bush for ignoring the wishes of Palestinians, while the European Union emphasized it would not accept border changes unless they were agreed to by both sides.

On Wednesday, Bush endorsed Israel's claim to parts of the West Bank seized in the 1967 Middle East war as part of U.S. backing for an Israeli plan to pull out of another occupied area, the Gaza Strip.

He also adopted the Israeli position that Palestinian refugees cannot expect to return to their homes inside Israel.

Palestinians said the moves killed peace negotiations that have been dormant for months.

Washington has been the main peace broker in the conflict for decades despite a perception among many Arabs it is biased because it is Israel's most important ally.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher acknowledged the new U.S. policy could influence the sides' positions at talks, but Powell said the move should not "prejudge or prejudice the outcome of those negotiations."

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