LONDON, Feb 13: The UK on Tuesday extended what it termed as ‘cautious welcome’ to the Makkah agreement between Hamas and Fateh and hoped that the revived Middle East peace process would lead to a two-state solution and mutual recognition by Palestine and Israel.
In a follow up to a similarly characterised welcome by the Council of European Union in Brussels on Monday, a spokesman of Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told media persons in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on Tuesday that Britain was keen to know further details about the Makkah accord like who would get what ministry in the government of national unity.
“Our understanding is that the Makkah initiative is a process, this is not the end of the story. We need to wait. Both the composition of the new government, that who gets which job and then what is the programme, what is the platform on which the new government would rest on are important matters. There I think we need more clarity. There are more agreements to be negotiations,” he added.
The spokesman said that Britain was also looking forward to the trilateral meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmart, President Mahmood Abbas and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday next in Jerusalem and hoped that the meeting would deal with all the practical issues involved.
“Issues relating to the release of prisoners, the access and movement problems being faced by Palestinians within the territory and between territories and getting the money being held by Israel released are all very important issues and would make a lot of difference in the daily life of the Palestinians,” the spokesman added.
He said Blair government hoped that the trilateral meeting would also get the parties back into the discussion about what a two state solution would actually mean, what it would look like, “We are keen to see that as well. But then we are not raising our hopes too high. It is a complex problem and we do not expect it to be resolved in a hurry.”
The Council of European Union had also expressed its full support for the forthcoming trilateral meeting and encouraged Israel and Palestinian leaders “to launch a process with the goal of ending the occupation that began in 1967.
