Spain, France, Italy offer peace plan for Mideast

GERONA, Spain – Spain, France and Italy offered a Mideast peace initiative Thursday, asserting that Europe must take a lead role in trying to end years of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed they called intolerable.

The five-point blueprint closely mirrors a deal the moderate Palestinian president is offering Hamas to form a national unity government and makes no explicit reference to requiring Hamas to recognize Israel – a key sticking point blocking the resumption of Western aid to the impoverished Palestinians.

It was not immediately clear if the initiative, put forward by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, was an effort to get the aid flowing again without such a declaration from Hamas.

Zapatero announced the plan at a summit with President Jacques Chirac of France. Italy is also on board, Zapatero said, and Spain hopes to win the endorsement of Britain and Germany and the broader European Union in the run-up to a December summit in Brussels, Belgium.

The Israeli government declined to comment on the new plan.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is close to President Mahmoud Abbas, said any international peace initiative was welcome but he stopped short of a warm endorsement.

The British Foreign Office declined to comment until the full details of the plan are released in December.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the Bush administration had seen reports of a plan, but “what we haven’t seen is a new proposal from the EU.”

The plan has five components: an immediate cease-fire; formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition; an exchange of prisoners, including the Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza; talks between Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president; and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a cease-fire.