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Arabs List Terms, U.S. Fine-Tunes Mideast Policy
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| U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell with Saudi Arabian Finance
Minister Saud Al-Faisal outside State Department.
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WASHINGTON,
June 16 (IslamOnline and News Agencies) - U.S. President George W.
Bush and top aides were to wrestle Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June
16, with the best way towards a Palestinian state as he readies a
highly-anticipated public statement outlining U.S. Middle East policy,
as Arab leaders voiced their concerns throughout the week.
After
weeks of consultations here with regional leaders and confusion over
mixed messages from
Washington
, top
U.S.
national security officials were to set the stage for Bush’s
comments, which were expected to come early next week.
“This
weekend will be a time of great introspection, and hopefully we’ll
have something by Monday if not before. It’s just a question of when
the president makes up his mind,” said a top
U.S.
official who requested anonymity.
Bush
is not expected to hand Israel and the Palestinians a point-by-point
manual for moving forward, but will outline principles to move forward
with his vision for ending the 20-month cycle of Middle East violence
that will include the eventual creation of a Palestinian state meant
to live in peace alongside Israel.
Exactly
what he will say and precisely when are closely guarded secrets in the
White House, where officials insist Bush will not commit to a course
of action before his top aides debate the matter and offer their
advice.
The
unnamed U.S. official said Bush’s national security adviser,
Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Steve Hadley; Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz; and Secretary of State
Colin Powell and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East
Affairs William Burns would participate in talks Friday, June 14, or
Saturday.
For
his part, Powell heard from Arab leaders that any Palestinian state
must include land
Israel
gained by war in 1967, news agencies reported.
Powell
was listening to top Palestinian adviser Nabil Shaath during their
meeting Friday at the State Department, Shaath told reporters.
“I
understood that this was the opportunity for the Palestinians to
communicate to the secretary all their visions, all their ideas, so
that he can communicate that to the president,” Shaath said, telling
Powell that any peace proposal must include a deadline for political
progress, because “without a timeline, procrastination can come
in.”
Prince
Saud Al-Faisal,
Saudi Arabia
’s foreign minister, after meeting with Powell, would only tell
reporters that
U.S.
and Arab officials share the same goals of giving Palestinians land in
exchange for Arab peace and normal relations with
Israel
.
The
U.S.
president suggested he would establish guidelines outlining the
burdens that
Israel
, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab world must bear rather than
unveil a detailed road-map.
“Israelis
are going to have to be responsible, Palestinians are going to have to
be responsible, the Arab world is going to have to assume
responsibility to achieve this vision," he said.
The
guidelines could provide fodder for broad discussion at a proposed
ministerial conference that
Washington
has said it hopes will come off in the coming months.
But
the suggestion that Bush may endorse Arab leaders’ push to create a
provisional Palestinian state - over
Israel
’s objections and to a cool reception from Palestinians - has raised
logistical questions.
Shaath
said the most important thing is for a state to include the lands
Israel
gained from Arabs in the 1967 Six-Day War. “That is a very important
requirement,” Shaath said.
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that
Israel
must retain at least some of the land for protection.
On
Friday, the New York Times reported that Bush and Faisal discussed
issues on Thursday such as defining borders, setting a timeline,
Israeli withdrawal and how to shape Palestinian institutions.
Bush
spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters Friday “that is
inaccurate,” though he professed ignorance of whether the Saudi
official raised those issues in meetings with Rice and Vice President
Dick Cheney.
Deepening
the mystery surrounding Bush’s announcement, Sharon left his meeting
with the U.S. leader saying “we obtained what we want,” while the
Saudi diplomat on Thursday said he was “very pleased” with what he
heard in the Oval Office.
Bush
aides say he is considering the proposal for the land that
Palestinians now hold, roughly 40 percent of the
West Bank
and two-thirds of
Gaza
.
The
Saturday edition of the Boston Globe, released Friday evening, quoted
unidentified Palestinian officials as saying the U.S. plan would leave
provisional Palestine’s borders and capital unresolved, but it would
have the right to conduct foreign relations, sign treaties and join
the United Nations, reports news agencies.
The
plan also calls for a halt to new Jewish settlements in the
West Bank
and control over
Jerusalem
to be decided over three years, the Globe said.
The
ranking Palestinian official in the
United States
, Hassan Abdel Rahman, would not comment on the report, but said
Palestinians wanted the borders and capital questions resolved. “To
leave the borders open, we don’t feel this is something we can live
with,” Rahman said, adding it was essential the capital of a
Palestinian state be
East Jerusalem
.
But
before the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state can occur,
the White House has insisted that Arafat must consolidate his security
apparatus as well as halt attacks against
Israel
, declaring his recent call for elections “positive” while
insisting that actions must follow words.
U.S.
officials, however, cautiously welcomed promises of the new
Palestinian security chief, Gen. Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, to curb
resistance attacks on Israelis, but a State Department spokesman said
the promises must be backed up with action, news agencies reported.
However,
Fleischer indicated Thursday that
Washington
would continue to view Israeli retaliation for any Palestinian
resistance attacks as “self defense.”
“It
always is, of course, the law under the United Nations Charter for
nations to have the right to self-defense,” he said.
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