WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has offered to help establish a
Palestinian state by 2005, but linked this to the removal of Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
"Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a
Palestinian state can be born," Bush said. "I call on the Palestinian people
to elect
new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror."
Officials and analysts said this is the first time that the United
States has linked Middle East peace to Arab democracy, Middle East Newsline reported. They said this is a
significant departure from the 1993 Oslo accords that allowed the PLO to
establish control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"And when the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and
new security arrangements with their neighbors, the United States
of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state whose borders
and certain aspects of its sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as
part of a final settlement in the Middle East," the U.S. president said.
President George Bush urged the Palestinians to fight terrorism, end the
nearly two-year war with Israel and impose government reform. The president
said he wanted to see Palestinian elections and an Israeli withdrawal from
areas captured during the insurgency war that began in September 2000.
Bush, who called for municipal and parliamentary elections by the end of
the year, did not provide a timetable for a state but said an
Israeli-Palestinian settlement could be reached in three years. White House
officials said an interim state could be established by the end of 2003 if
the Palestinians fulfill the U.S. demands.
"For the first time, the United States has declared that progress in
Middle East peacemaking is dependent on the internal political development
of one of the actors," Robert Satloff, director of policy and strategic
planning at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said. "In other
words, democracy must come before U.S. support for statehood."
The officials said Bush was deeply affected by Palestinian suicide
bombings over the last week and rejected State Department proposals for a
Palestinian state. Instead, the officials said, Bush decided to stress a
change in the Palestinian leadership and reform.
'The last several incidents, the deterioration of the situation on the
ground perhaps has given new impetus on the
American part to recognizing that our own disappointment with the current
leadership just shows that we're not going to get there until you get new
leadership," a senior administration official said.
The PA welcomed Bush's vision for a Palestinian state but did not
respond to his call for a replacement of the leadership. A PA statement said
the Palestinian leadership looks forward to discussing the U.S. plan with
visiting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Israeli officials praised Bush's speech. Several ministers close to
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Bush's call to replace Arafat provides the
green light for any Israeli effort to exile the Palestinian leader.
