The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has called for US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, to meet Mr Yasser Arafat during his visit to the Middle East, saying a Palestinian state must be part of the solution. Mr Cowen said yesterday that Mr Arafat was "the recognised leader of the Palestinian people" and it was unacceptable that his freedom of movement was being restricted.
Speaking on RTÉ radio's This Week programme, he said the ultimate solution would respect the legitimate security concerns of the Israeli people. But it would also recognise "the legitimate political aspirations of the Palestinian people to a viable state of their own, living side by side in peaceful co-existence with Israel.
"In the short term we have got to see an immediate ceasefire, withdrawal from the West Bank, the implementation of security co-operation between the Palestinians and Israelis," and the resumption of negotiations. Asked about an Israeli withdrawal, he said: "The unanimous resolution of the Security Council on Thursday is that they withdraw without delay."
"The only solution here will never be an exclusively military solution. What we are seeing here is an effort by the most powerful party to impose its power on the occupied people in Palestine.
"The suggestion that you are going to have peace and stability on the basis of the most powerful party imposing on a subject nation the terms of a peace is simply not going to work. We know that and we have known that for a very long time."