"To be a credible and responsible partner, the new Palestinian prime minister must hold a position of real authority," said Bush

By Mustafa Abdel-Halim & Hani Mohamed, IOL Staff

CAIRO, March 14 (IslamOnline.net) – As all American diplomatic maneuvers to win support for a new Security Council resolution paving way for war on Iraq failed, President George W. Bush showed up in a hastily arranged press conference to talk about the unexpected, reviving the long-delayed roadmap peace plan for Middle East peace.

The roadmap, envisaging the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005, will be submitted to both Palestinians and Israelis as soon as the Palestinians confirm the appointment of a prime minister, Bush pledged.

But many Arab analysts and political figures were sceptical about Bush’s words on the roadmap, particularly at this crucial time of mounting world popular and official opposition to his looming aggression on Iraq.

“The announcement is nothing but a fresh American attempt to snatch the backing of certain countries in the Arab region, especially the Saudi Arabia, to its potential offensive against Iraq,” Mohamed Al-Sayyed Said, Director of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told IslamOnline.net.

“Bush wants to force Saudi Arabia to change its opposition to his country’s war plans or at least undermine this objection,” said the expert, adding that the success of the announcement depends on this point.

Said added that Bush’s statement is just an attempt to “absorb anger at national and international levels as to his administration’s apathy with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while keeping a high profile on the Iraq issue.

The highlight of a possible presentation of the roadmap also do a service to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is under fire at home from even his party members and facing threats of resignations in his government, Said noted.

By shedding light on a solution to the Middle East, Bush wants to boost Blair’s widely known “balanced” stance on the Palestinian question, added the expert.

Only minutes after Bush's speech, Blair held a briefing at Downing Street during which he hailed Bush’s pledge as "a big step forward."

Speaking to Arab and Israeli reporters, Blair said the goal was "a final and a comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by 2005."

He also went as far as to make a direct link between the timing of the announcement to the steps toward war with Iraq, adding that the suffering on  Palestinians should be worthy of an equal focus as the Iraq standoff.

"I think it is precisely now when we do have all this focus on the issue of weapons of mass destruction and Saddam and all the things that he has done ... that we say to the Arab and Muslim world, we accept the obligation of even-handedness," Blair said.

"We are right to focus on (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, … we must put equal focus on the people whose lives are being devastated by the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process."

Blair refused to take questions on either the Iraq crisis or his summit talks on Sunday, March 16, with Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

But Bush’s move may also be directed at the European countries that stand against war resolution, including outspoken France.

E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana hailed Bush’s pledge to publish the roadmap as “good news, constructive and positive news."

"The roadmap which is going to be released is the roadmap we approve," he said.

But it is still difficult to rule Solana’s view as indicative of the divided European bloc.

“We must take into account that Solana’s statement just to undermine divisions in the ranks of European countries on Iraq. So they should not be exaggerated accordingly,” Said underlined.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials were quick to slam the statement as not enough a step down the coveted road of the creation of a Palestinian state.

Top Palestinian negotiator said that Bush’s statement carries no tangible efforts to carry out the roadmap, as he only promised of “Immediately upon confirmation, the roadmap for peace will be given to the Palestinians and the Israelis."

“This means this roadmap will never be put into place as Israel earlier called for 100 amendments to it, which makes us believe it would not be accepted by the Jewish state,” Erekat lamented.

“If the American side wants to implement the roadmap, it should halt Israeli aggressive operations into Palestinian lands and put an unconditional and unfettered end to settlement construction,” said Mustafa Al-Barghouthi, director of Palestinian Institute of Media and Strategic policies.

“Until now, we found pressures only exercised on the Palestinians, an indicative that American and British statements are only meant to gain support of the Arab public opinion,” he said.

“If Bush was serious in his Friday statement, why have not he pushed the two conflicting sides to abide by the plan over the last months or resisted Israeli pressures to delay it until after general elections,” said Hassan Nafaa, an Egyptian political science professor.