Agence France Presse

CAIRO, 15 January 2004 — Israel’s construction of a barrier through parts of the West Bank is blocking a revival of peace negotiations with the Palestinians, US Middle East envoy William Burns said here yesterday.

“We have made it clear (to the Israelis) that the core of our concern is about the course of the separation barrier,” he said.

Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, was speaking at a press conference following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

He pointed out that Washington had raised its concerns with the Israelis, publicly and privately, pointing to the need to ease the humanitarian problems posed by the barrier and also to show how the barrier is an obstacle to resuming peace talks.

US officials have told their Israeli counterparts that the barrier “prejudices the outcome of negotiations and makes it harder to revive hope in the roadmap and move back to the peace process,” he said.

The roadmap calls for steps from both sides toward ending more than three years of violence and reaching a final peace settlement based on a Palestinian state that lives in peace alongside Israel.

Israel insists that the barrier, which amounts to a wall in some parts and a barbed wire fence in others, is essential to prevent attacks on its soil.

The Palestinians regard it as little more than an attempt to pre-empt the borders of their promised future state and grab some of their most fertile land with its route jutting deep into the West Bank at times. Referring to his talks with Mubarak, Burns said, “We talked about how we can continue to work together to revive hope for negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis and to move ahead on the basis of the road map.” Egypt has long played a key intermediary role in trying to bridge the gap between its Palestinian allies and Israel.