Withdrawal from Palestinian areas urged.

• Author: Rutsch, Horst
• Position: PeaceWatch: Middle East

The Security Council on 26 October called on Israel to immediately withdraw its forces from Palestinian-controlled areas. It said it "fully supported the important diplomatic initiatives to deescalate the situation on the ground", and "strongly supported" all elements contained in a statement issued by representatives of the European Union, the United States, the Russian Federation, and the Secretary-General's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen. Issued a day earlier, the statement noted that the Palestinian Authority's steps to ensure strict implementation of the ceasefire had been undermined by the assassination of Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi. Noting that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat had detailed steps to control violence and combat terrorism, the statement urged him to ensure full and strict compliance. Israel was also called on to halt extrajudicial killings, ensure greater restraint by its defence forces, fully respect the ceasefire, move s wiftly to ease closures, and implement the Mitchell Report and Tenet Plan, "which will lead to a resumption of the political process in order to address the fundamental issues between the two parties".

Implementation of the Mitchell Committee report offered "the most practicable route back" to the Middle East peace process, according to the annual report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, released on 31 October. The report called for the "immediate and comprehensive implementation" of the recommendations of the...