"The Middle East quartet (Russia, the USA, the EU and the UN) have been seriously challenged in light of the latest events and the US position announced by the US President in relation to the plan of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for Israel's unilateral separation from the Palestinian territories, the minister said.
The support by US President George Bush of the Sharon plan, which contradicts the provisions of the road map, is a departure from this plan, minister Erikat believes.
"The promises given by the USA to Israel make insipid the stage of the negotiations on final settlement between Palestinians and Israelis and condition Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip by the preservation of Israeli troops' control of international ground, air and water borders, the continuation of the construction of a dividing wall on the Western bank of the Jordan river," Erikat said.
He urged the international quartet to insist on the preservation of the road map as an integral and indivisible document and not to agree to any measures, which may damage the negotiations on final settlement, first of all, as regards the problems of Jerusalem, refugees, Israeli settlements and the termination of the Palestinian territories not later than 2005.
"If the Israeli plan of separation from the Gaza strip is not a part of the road map, this will destroy the Middle East peaceful process and the very road map plan," the Palestinian minister believes.
