May 31, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

KARACHI, May 30: The Middle East “roadmap” would be difficult to implement because US President George Bush is unlikely to spoil his prospects for re-election by leaning on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to take the hard decisions required, ex-foreign minister Agha Shahi writes in an article sent for publication to national newspapers.

“In US electoral politics, as the influence of the Jewish lobby is critical to success, he may not wish to alienate this group, which is backed by the Christian right in the US Congress and by the formidable neoconservative policymakers inside his own administration who want him to reject the roadmap,” says Mr Shahi.

The former diplomat is sceptical of Mr Bush’s tenacity in the face of “mounting pressure” from the Jewish lobby to shout out the European Union, the United Nations and Russia into irrelevance vis-a-vis the implementation of the roadmap.

Mr Shahi says Israel’s obstinacy over calls for pullout to its pre-June 1967 borders had rendered the entire negotiating process meaningless.

He said of late, Israeli spokesmen had been trying to make their government’s intentions pretty clear by emphasizing repeatedly that Tel Aviv would vacate no more than 50 per cent of occupied territories.

“Even then, in the vacated areas, the Palestinian towns and habitats will be isolated and separated by roads and their entry and exit points will remain under Israeli control.”

Mr Shahi expressed the apprehension that if at all a Palestinian state came into being, it would not be a viable, independent and sovereign entity.

He criticized the “performance-based” approach of the roadmap since it would enable Mr Sharon to condition progress in its implementation on the fulfilment of previous commitments by the Palestinians, thus freeing him from adherence to the timetables envisaged in the plan.