PARIS, April 15: The European Union voiced fears on Thursday that borders would be changed unilaterally in the Middle East in the wake of the US policy shift upholding Israel's usurpation of Palestinian land.
The EU, which drew up the Middle East roadmap with the United States in 2002, avoided direct criticism of President George Bush, but said any border changes must be agreed with the Palestinians and any deal must include a fair and just deal for refugees.
And Arab leaders condemned Wednesday's announcement as a dangerous move that could stir violence. After a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday, the US president backed plans by Israel to keep parts of the West Bank it has occupied since 1967 and dismissed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to what is now Israel.
The official US view had for decades been that settlements were an obstacle to peace. Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said in a statement on behalf of the EU presidency that "the European Union will not recognize any change to the pre-1967 borders (of Israel) other than those arrived at by agreement between the parties".
Mr Cowen said the roadmap - drawn up by the EU, the United States, the United Nations and Russia - underlined any settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "must include an agreed, just, fair and realistic solution to the refugee issue".
French President Jacques Chirac took a firm line while visiting Algeria, saying he had reservations about any "unilateral, bilateral questioning of international law". He said such moves would be an unfortunate and dangerous precedent.
The German government said it hoped work on the roadmap would continue, welcoming the fact that there was movement in the peace process and hailed Israel's plan to uproot all settlements in Gaza.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the Gaza pullout plan offered a chance that should be seized but did not refer to Mr Bush's remarks on refugees or to West Bank settlements. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed the Gaza plan but also made no mention of the West Bank settlements.
ARAB REACTION: Arab leaders said any agreements that were forced on the Palestinians and were not part of the roadmap would fail. "We expect the United States to play honest broker. We accused it before of not being balanced. Now we can't even say that. The United States has adopted Israel's position," Hesham Youssef, a senior Arab League official, said in Cairo.
"We are in a very difficult situation which is unprecedented ... This is a fundamental milestone in the Arab-Israeli conflict." Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Mr Bush's policy shift would have dangerous repercussions and urged Arab states to call for an emergency general assembly in the United Nations to "confirm the illegitimacy of the American position".
"It undermines hope for a just and comprehensive peace, inflames feelings of enmity toward America and opens the door towards retaking these rights by force, through all legitimate means of resistance," he said in a statement.
In Damascus, a Syrian official said President Bush's position would not help peace, stability or US interests in the Middle East and that it "closed the door on the roadmap". -Reuters