MIDDLE-EAST/ IRELAND: The only way forward in the Middle East was through negotiation, the former leader of the Israeli Labour Party, Mr Avram Mitzna, said in Dublin yesterday.
Mr Mitzna, a member of parliament and former major-general in the Israeli Defence Forces, was involved in the talks which produced the Geneva Accord, a detailed plan for the resolution of the conflict.
He said the plan showed that "if we really want, if we put all the sensitive and very painful issues on the table, we are able to reach an agreement".
Recalling that he commanded Israeli forces during the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, he continued: "From being a soldier, I became a soldier for peace, because I understand, maybe better than other people, what are the limitations of using power."
Accompanied by the former minister of culture and information in the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, Mr Mitzna briefed the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, on the negotiations leading up to the accord and subsequent reaction to it.
Mr Rabbo, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, told journalists that the accord was the product of three years' work. "The Geneva initiative represents a comprehensive, pragmatic solution which aims at showing that there is a possible historical compromise and that this compromise is based on the notion or formula of meeting the basic needs and interests of both sides."
He added: "In this accord we found solutions which nobody can neglect: for ending the occupation; establishing the Palestinian independent state side-by-side with Israel on the 1967 borders; sharing Jerusalem together as a capital for both states; the issues of the refugees, settlements and the borders."
He described it as "a solution where both sides can see they are winning and they are not losing, except their agonies and the continuation of this cycle of violence".
Mr Cowen said that the accord was a welcome development: "It demonstrates that rational discourse from society on both sides is possible."
Referring to the two-state solution sought by the EU, UN, US and Russia, he said: "We recognise that the Geneva initiative complements what the Quartet is doing to implement the 'Road Map' fully."