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Burns Seeks to Prepare Palestinians for Statehood in "Three-Track" Bid
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Burns tells Maher three tracks needed before Palestinian Statehood |
CAIRO, May 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns said Wednesday he would try to help the Palestinians prepare for statehood as he launched Washington's "three-track" strategy to revive their peace talks with Israel, news agencies reported.
Burns said he told Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher here about the U.S. commitment to "a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the crisis between Palestinians and Israelis, which involved movement on three tracks."
Burns, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, said U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell had asked him to consult with Arab allies on the first two tracks.
"First, to renew a serious political process aimed at the two-states solution. Second, to support Palestinian efforts to build strong institutions in preparation for statehood," he told reporters after talks with Maher.
The third track, "to ensure effective Palestinian performance on security," was the task of CIA Director George Tenet, who was due to visit the region shortly, Burns said.
"It is extremely important to make progress on all three of these tracks because the truth is that it's impossible to foresee lasting progress on security without a restoration of political hope and impossible for me to foresee progress in the political process without security," Burns said.
He said Tenet and he would return to Washington before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom Burns was to see here on Thursday, travels to Camp David for talks with Bush on the crisis.
"This visit is going to be extremely important because the partnership between the United States and Egypt has been crucial [to] diplomatic progress in the past and I'm convinced it's going to be equally important now," he said.
Sources close to Mubarak said the Egyptian leader would travel to London on June 4, before taking a flight to Washington the following day, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The White House said Bush would welcome Mubarak to Camp David June 7 and 8 to discuss developments in the Middle East and bilateral issues.
Bush has repeatedly outlined a vision of two states, one Palestinian and one Israeli, living side by side in peace and security. However, official U.S. policy has differed from facts on the ground, which show no wavering in U.S. military and diplomatic support of Israel even in light of internationally condemned aggressions by Israel against the Palestinians.
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