 |
|
There’s been confusion over whether Bush really supports a "temporary" Palestinian state.
|
WASHINGTON,
June 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and U.S. President George W. Bush discussed
faltering Middle East peace efforts in a telephone conversation
Sunday, June 16, officials of both countries said, news agencies
reported.
White
House spokesman Scott McClellan would not discuss details of their
10-15 minute conversation, which he described as part of the U.S.
President's ongoing consultations on the Middle East.
"It
was a private conversation," he said, quoted by Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
The
official Saudi Press Agency said the two leaders "exchanged views
on developments in the Palestinian cause and to reach a settlement
that guarantees peace, justice and security in the region."
Bush
, who held face-to-face consultations June 13 with Saudi Foreign
Prince Saud al-Faisal and other Middle East leaders, is expected
within days to announce a new U.S. strategy for the region.
Bush
has twinned support for Israeli's hardline policy against Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority with backing the
creation of a Palestinian state, A public statement by Bush was
expected to map the way forward in a public statement as early as next
week.
The
Saudi Foreign Minister was the latest in a parade of regional leaders
who have come to Washington in the last month hoping to shape U.S.
policy, including Jordan's King, Egypt's President, and Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon.
"The
President will be discussing various ideas about Middle East peace
with members of his administration and members of the administration
will continue their outreach to other nations in a multilateral
fashion," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, following
Bush’s 20-minute meet with Al-Faisal.
The
Foreign Minister had been expected to underscore Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's concerns about Bush's "recent negative
stands vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority and its leader," a
Saudi official told AFP.
"I
was very pleased with what I heard from the President," the
visiting minister told reporters after the meeting, revealing that he
had delivered a letter to Bush from the Crown Prince.
After
meeting earlier with Sharon, Bush declared that the time was not ripe
for a proposed ministerial-level conference on the region in the
coming months, saying that "no-one has confidence in the emerging
Palestinian government."
Bush
"believes that Saudi Arabia is committed to a meaningful, lasting
peace process in the Middle East that includes a providing security
for Israel as well as a hopeful and helpful future for the Palestinian
people," Fleischer said.
But
according to a diplomatic source in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia deems Bush's
latest stands to have "provided strong support for Sharon's
intransigent policy, which does not help restart peace talks along the
lines agreed by Riyadh and Washington" during a late-April summit
at Bush's Texas ranch.
The
Saudi plan discussed at that meeting includes the Israeli withdrawal
from Palestinian areas, deployment of an international peacekeeping
force, reconstruction of damaged Palestinian areas, renunciation of
violence, talks on a political settlement and an end to Israeli
settlements in Palestinian areas, reports news agencies.
In
recent days, the U.S. administration's policy has looked adrift, with
confusion over whether Bush supports holding the ministerial
conference and whether he is considering proposing a
"temporary" Palestinian state as an inducement to reforms
and a more thorough crackdown on anti-Israeli violence.
Bush
is now expected to unveil a framework for negotiations to rebuild
Palestinian institutions to establish a Palestinian state, reviving
political negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and
improving security to end Palestinian martyr operations against
Israel.
The
White House has distanced itself from U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell's comments in an Arabic-language newspaper that Bush believes
that such an entity "may be necessary" to eventually
creating a permanent state.
Bush
"knows that it may be necessary to have a provisional state, an
interim step; it may take several steps to get there," the
London-based Al-Hayat daily quoted Powell as saying.
Fleischer
dismissed Powell's comments as merely "reflecting" advice
from world leaders on the Middle East, and made clear that the U.S.
leader had not signed on to the proposal.
On
his way to a meeting of G8 nations' foreign ministers in Canada,
Powell stressed to reporters aboard his plane that the idea was not
new and took pains to say Bush was only "examining" the
idea.
"I
did not say there will be a state. I said these are the ideas that are
out there," he noted. "I'm just trying to lay out to you the
range of ideas that are out there, the issues that the President is
examining."
Among
the other loose threads is whether Washington plans to go ahead with a
proposed ministerial level conference on the Middle East.
Bush,
meeting at Camp David with the Egyptian President earlier this month,
said the conditions for holding such a meeting were absent.
