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US Secretary of State Colin Powell and visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Monday pledged to provide help to the Palestinian elections scheduled for January 9.
"We are pleased that they (Palestinians) have set a date for an election for the new president of the Palestinian Authority," Powell said at a joint press conference with Shalom.
Powell said he hoped to be able to convene a Quartet -- the US, the United Nations, the EU and Russia -- during his forthcoming visit to the Middle East to push the implementation of the "road map" which was designed to build a Palestinian state in 2005.
The secretary denied the necessity to revise the "road map," noting that "It lays out the responsibilities and obligations and commitments of both sides very, very clearly."
Shalom said that he had "a very good and constructive discussion" with Powell over the Middle East issues. "We would like to see the involvement of the American administration that was always involved in all the peace processes that we had in the past."
On the scheduled Palestinian elections after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Shalom said that Israel expects to "enable the Palestinians to have a free and fair election."
"Everything that is needed will be given to them in order to ensure that they will have the possibility to elect their new leadership. We would like to see this new leadership is moving toward better understanding with Israel, to move toward peace with Israel," Shalom said.
Noting that Powell is "a very good friend of Israel", Shalom said that he was very sorry to hear that Powell has decided to resign from his post.
"It's a big loss for the state of Israel and it's a big loss for the peace in the Middle East," he said.
When asked if the 200,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem should participate in the election, Shalom said that "Jerusalem is the eternal capital, undivided capital of Israel ... we didn't have election, even in 1996, then in Jerusalem, and I believe it should be the same, that there will be no elections in Jerusalem."
However, the final decision about the participants of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem in the coming election will take place in a few days, Shalom added.
(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2004)
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