November 21, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 15, 1423

WASHINGTON, Nov 20: Israel on Wednesday asked the United States to delay the release of a long-awaited “road map” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict until after general elections the Jewish state will hold in January.

Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky said debate within Israel on the plan — which calls for a provisional Palestinian state by next year and permanent one by 2005 — would be complicated if it were set out before the Jan 28 polls.

“At the time of an election campaign in Israel — in the next two months, until we have elections — it would be unfortunate if the road map plan will become part of the political campaign,” Sharansky told reporters after meeting Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

“(That) would make it almost impossible to have deep, rational discussions on this plan,” he said. “That’s why we feel that it is better ... to have these discussions after the elections.”

Sharansky, who also holds the housing ministry portfolio in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s caretaker government, said he had delivered that message on behalf of Sharon to Armitage and US Vice President Dick Cheney.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher said on Wednesday that the road map was expected to be announced on Dec 20 at a ministerial-level meeting of the international diplomatic quartet on the Middle East, which has been formulating the plan.

The US State Department on Wednesday would not comment on the date announced by Moasher, but diplomatic sources in Washington said the United States was indeed looking at Dec 28 for a possible meeting of the quartet principals to unveil the road map.

In addition to Israel’s concerns about the election campaign complicating the road map debate, Sharansky repeated objections that Sharon’s right-wing government has to the plan, including its demand for a halt to Jewish settlements and the timeline it envisions.

“There are some points that are very problematic,” he said.

In addition to the creation of an interim Palestinian state next year, the road map also calls for an end to Palestinian attacks and an Israeli army withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian cities.

NEW LABOUR LEADER: After 20 months of cooperating with the Israeli right, Labour elected the dovish Amram Mitzna to lead the party into January elections, offering a quick return to peace talks with the Palestinians.

Even as the Haifa mayor celebrated his meteoric rise to the top, analysts warned of an uphill struggle for him to reunite his party, dispirited after sitting in the right-wing government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for nearly two years.

Mitzna won 53.9 per cent of votes cast against 38.17 percent for hawkish former defence minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and 7.24 percent for MP Haim Ramon.

“My aim is to unify the party so that it puts up a strong showing against (Sharon’s) Likud” in the Jan 28 election, Mitzna said.

A relative newcomer in Israeli politics, the 57-year-old has pulled off a spectacular rise to the top of his ailing party, while establishing himself as the leader of Labour’s doves.

Mitzna was elected on a pledge to close Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, rein in settlements in the West Bank and unilaterally separate from the Palestinians if peace talks yield no results.

Despite his triumph, the chances of a general election victory for Mitzna remain slim, with polls showing Sharon’s Likud party almost doubling its seats in January.

First, though, this month’s primaries will pit the favourite Sharon against the hard right former premier Binyamin Netanyahu, his foreign minister since the unity coalition with Labour collapsed last month.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu slammed both Sharon and Mitzna for backing the creation of a Palestinian state.

“The real election is not between Labour and Likud, but inside Likud between those who support a Palestinian state and those who don’t,” he told public radio.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hailed Mitzna’s victory, and said he was “sure” Mitzna would finish the work of his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin, one of the architects of the Oslo peace accords who was assassinated in 1995.

However, radical Islamic groups were unmoved by Mitzna’s election and warned that his campaign’s dovish platform did not make him a partner.—AFP