|
Bush Supports Creation of Palestinian State, Israel Criticizes, Egypt Fears Ploy
WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush confirmed media reports Tuesday that creating a Palestinian state had always been part of his country's vision of peace in the Middle East.
While Palestinians cautiously welcomed the statement, Israelis criticized it, and the Egyptian government feared a replay of similar promises left unfulfilled after the Gulf War.
Bush tied his vision of a Palestinian state to Israel's right to exist, news agencies reported.
"The idea of a Palestinian state has always been part of a vision, so long as the right to Israel to exist is respected," he was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"I fully understand that progress is made in centimeters in the Middle East. And we believe we're making some progress," Bush said.
Palestinians hailed Bush's long-awaited endorsement for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"The statement of President Bush will encourage, and it will help fulfill an atmosphere of security and safety in the region," Nabil Abu Rudeina, top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, told AFP.
"Establishing a Palestinian state with a capital in holy Jerusalem is the way to bring security, peace and stability to the region," he said.
Abu Rudeina added that an end to Israel's closure of the Occupied Territories, implementation of the Mitchell plan and starting final status negotiations would "help promote stability in the entire world."
Contrary to feelings of relief among Palestinians, Israel bitterly warned that Bush's remarks might backfire.
Criticizing Bush's statement, Zalman Shoval, a spokesman for hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said that since Bush's Middle East peace initiative has been partly prompted by his desire to enlist Muslim and Arab states against Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, whom Washington claims to be the prime suspect in the September 11th attacks on the U.S., Palestinians could wind up thanking the wanted Saudi.
"It could possibly be counter-productive in the long run, as the Palestinians could thank bin Laden for it," he told AFP.
He said it was "probably not wrong" to regard Bush's remarks in Washington earlier Tuesday as part of a U.S. effort to set up a global anti-terrorist coalition and bring Arab and Muslim states on board.
But Shoval said Bush hit the right note in insisting that the first step was a total halt to all violence, before moving on the internationally backed Mitchell plan to find a way back to political negotiations.
Bush's statements signaled a dramatic shift in his administration's policies towards the Middle East, as he implied that he would take a more hands-on approach in dealing with the crisis.
"We are working diligently with both sides to encourage a reduction of violence so that meaningful discussions can take place," Bush was quoted by the
Washington Post as saying.
The paper further quoted him as saying the United States still backed a proposal drafted by former Senator George Mitchell about paving the way for a return to peace negotiations.
He also stood by Mitchell's recommendations for reviving the stumbling peace process in the region, calling those recommendations "a viable blueprint that most of the world agrees with is a necessary path to ultimately solving the problems of the Middle East."
Senior U.S. officials said earlier Tuesday that Washington's plans to unveil a major Middle East peace initiative, including possible support for a Palestinian state, were stalled by the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
"We had started, in fact, to make more strenuous efforts in the Middle East," an unnamed U.S. State Department official said.
According to various U.S. officials, the potential plan centered around paving the way to a key meeting between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
"In the run up to the U.N., the main thrust of the plan was to revolve around the meetings with Peres and Arafat," another official told AFP.
The meeting did take place after the U.S. pressured Sharon to refrain from further opposing negotiations toward peace, but the truce agreed upon in the meeting is growing shakier, especially in light of the postponement of any U.N. backing.
"We had been looking at the U.N. session not as time to unveil a plan, but to get some momentum," the official said. "We haven't proceeded exactly as we might have after the attacks but the basic outline is still in play."
However, there were contradictory reports by the New York Times and the Washington Post stating that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was to announce a fresh U.S. peace plan in an address to the U.N. General Assembly.
One official denied that Powell was to voice such support to a Palestinian state, according to AFP.
That official, described as close to Powell, said the secretary had not planned to make such an announcement and that Bush's address to the world body was not intended to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The secretary doesn't make a U.N. speech, and the President's speech wasn't going to be a Middle East speech," the official said.
According to the Post, Powell would have laid out general principles for the settlement of the most difficult issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including determining final borders, and the right-of-return and Palestinian refugee status.
The Egyptian government has welcomed support by Bush for a Palestinian state, but commentators feared Wednesday his words were "too good to be true", AFP reported.
Recalling forgotten commitments for a just Arab-Israeli peace made during the 1991 Gulf War, they speculated whether Washington would commit to the announcement, fearing the support for a Palestinian state may be a ploy merely to recruit Arab-backing in its "campaign against terror".
"We really hope that Bush's courageous step is a correction of U.S. policy aligned with Israel, and not a convenient move" to help Washington rally much needed Arab allies in its battle on terror, said Galal Dweidar, editor-in-chief of the government daily,
Al-Akhbar.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher welcomed it as opening the "way to peace negotiations" on the final status of the Palestinian territories.
But Dweidar said he hoped "Mr. Bush is serious" in his remarks and that they would not amount to promises that would evaporate when calm returns.
He called on the U.S. administration to "undertake the necessary steps for applying" the ideas expressed by Bush.
Makram Mohamed Ahmed, who is close to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and editor-in-chief of the government weekly
Al-Mussawar, said "the Arabs received similar promises during the Gulf War, which went away with the wind."
The U.S. government again promised a settlement of the Palestinian problem, when Maher led an Egyptian delegation to Washington last week, he said.
Similar promises made during the Gulf War "were erased by the inhumane war…which Israel has fought in the past year, committing the vilest state terrorism without the [U.S.] 'sponsor' worrying about it," Ahmed said.
Egypt, and other Arab countries, joined the U.S.-led coalition that drove Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait in 1991, in return for a U.S. promise to throw its full weight behind obtaining a settlement on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and of economic aid.
Peace negotiations based on U.N. land-for-peace resolutions were launched in Madrid later that year, but those talks derailed after the latest Palestinian uprising against illegal Israeli occupation erupted on September 28, 2000.
With promises unfulfilled a decade after the Gulf War, Egyptians are reviving criticism against their government for having sent troops to fight a war against Iraq, a fellow Arab country.
"Nobody can guarantee that the words heard by the Egyptian delegation will become reality, applied in a neutral and fair way, or that they amount to promises only to win backing for the fight against terrorism,"
Al Mussawar said.
|
