The top UN envoy for the Middle East has warned that more bloodshed is inevitable unless the international road map for peace betweenIsrael and the Palestinians is pushed forward more quickly.
The best way to make progress was for Israel to abandon itssettlements on Palestinian lands, said Terje Roed-Larsen, UNspecial coordinator for the Middle East peace process, statingthis would win the Palestinian Authority the popular support itneeds to effectively counter the terrorist groups targetingIsrael.
"The two key issues in the peace process are terrorism andoccupation," Roed-Larsen told a UN Security Council meeting.
"Without popular support, no Palestinian prime minister canat this stage counter terrorism and terror organizations in aneffective manner," he said. "This essential public supportcould best be achieved, under the current circumstances,through abandonment of settlements."
He faulted Israel for its fresh round of targeted killingsof Palestinian militants, often carried out with"disproportionate force in densely populated civilian areas" inviolation of international humanitarian law.
And he criticized the Palestinians for failing to carry outsecurity reforms, including a consolidation of their securityforces, during the recent cease-fire.
While the Palestinians seek assurances the peace processwill lead to a viable Palestinian state, Israel's settlementactivity and its construction of a West Bank security wall"cause Palestinians to wonder whether we are moving in theopposite direction to that goal," Roed-Larsen said.
The UN envoy also criticized a decision in principle byIsrael's Security Cabinet to "remove" Palestinian PresidentYasser Arafat, calling Arafat "the legitimate leader of thePalestinians."
"He embodies Palestinian identity and national aspirations.He is now far from irrelevant," Roed-Larsen said.