JERUSALEM, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Muller, in the Middle East to gauge reaction to a new European Union peace proposal, said Wednesday both Arab and Israeli reaction had been favorable.
Muller, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, outlined the plan to 10 high-ranking officials, including Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and said it was "very well received" in the Arab world and was "well received by Arafat."
However, every official said they wanted to study the plan and promised more specific comments.
The Israelis, too, regarded it as a "positive initiative," he said. However Israeli sources told United Press International the reaction of senior Israeli officials had been cooler than Muller had indicated.
The EU initiative calls for an Israeli pullback from areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip occupied in the recent violence, and for arrangements to ensure free and fair Palestinian elections, Muller explained. The elected body will prepare a constitution.
A Palestinian state with preliminary borders will emerge, and it will negotiate a final settlement with Israel. That final settlement will cover also the crucial problems of refugees, Jerusalem, and the permanent borders.
Then "the final state of Palestine with clearly delineated borders (will be) recognized by the UN," he said.
Muller left copies of the proposed document with each of the Arab and Israeli leaders he met with and said that on the basis of their comments "we will change things, no doubt."
The EU plan seeks to bring together elements of earlier plans put proposed by the United States, Germany, France, and Saudi Arabia. Muller will present it in New York to the U.S., Russia, and the UN who form a Quartet trying to solve the dispute.
The Palestinian election results would be the engine for a reform, Muller argued. "We all want reforms," he told UPI. "Do you want reforms made by the (incumbent) body which we do not like, or do we want reforms made by the new elected body? ... If you make reforms before the elections, they are made by people you want to change, so I don't see the logic."
Sharon and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer insisted to Muller that Palestinian institutional and political reforms must be made before the elections, otherwise elections would not free, an Israeli source said.
Unless "terror organizations" are dismantled and finances are supervised, the radical Islamic Hamas will win the municipal elections and Arafat will win the national elections, Ben-Eliezer told Muller.
Sharon said Arafat was not and will not be a negotiating partner. Arafat controls about a dozen groups engaging in terror, controls funding and prevents any possibility for a real reform, the prime minister added.
The Danish minister countered: "It's very difficult to say to people 'You have free and fair elections, but some persons you may not vote for. That's impossible."
The EU, the Saudis and the Israelis hold different views on whether to set a timetable for implementing the plan. The Danish government wants to put in place a monitoring implementation. The Saudis wanted to speed up the process, while Sharon opposed setting target dates.
