Bush pledges Palestinian state after pressure from Saudis
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, November 13, 2001
WASHINGTON Ñ Saudi Arabia succeeded in pressuring President George
Bush to reaffirm a U.S. pledge to help establish a Palestinian state.
U.S. officials said Saudi anger at the Bush administration prompted the
president to revise his original speech to the United National General
Assembly and include Washington's support for a Palestinian state and a
solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The original draft was to have dealt
exclusively with the U.S.-led war against international terrorism.
"We are working toward a day when two states, Israel and Palestine, live
peacefully together within secure and recognized borders, as called for by
the Security Council resolutions," Bush told the General Assembly on
Saturday. "We will do all in our power to bring both parties back into
negotiations. But peace will only come when all have sworn off forever
incitement, violence and terror."
Riyad was angered by Bush's refusal to meet Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat and launch a Middle East peace plan. In unusually harsh criticism by
an ally, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Bin Al Faisal said Bush could
not be an honest broker without meeting Arafat. Prince Saud said Riyad was
"angrily frustrated" that the U.S. administration has failed to begin a
promised new peace initiative in the Middle East.
"The thing that is so sad is that what is needed to make peace is very
little," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Bin Faisal told the New York
Times.
On Friday, Prince Saud met Bush at the White House. The Saudi foreign
minister refused to answer questions after the meeting.
Later, the minister, described as sounding satisfied with Bush's UN
speech, told the official Saudi Press Agency that his
meeting with president was productive and that the two men discussed the war
against terrorism and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Prince Saud said he hoped
that Washington would soon release a peace plan for the Middle East.
Palestinian officials said they were not surprised by the Bush decision
to avoid an Arafat meeting. They said Arafat did not request a meeting with
Bush.
"He [Bush] has to decide how important it is to meet President Arafat,"
PA International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath said in Washington on
Friday. "But his schedule, his calculations or whatever have to be made by
him only."
Earlier, the Saudi minister told the New York Times that Bush could not
be an
honest broker without meeting Arafat. Prince Saud said Riyad was "angrily
frustrated" that the U.S. administration has failed to begin a promised new
peace initiative in the Middle East.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to meet Arafat on Sunday.
Arafat addresses the General Assembly on Sunday. Powell said he understood
the Saudi anger against Washington.
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