Posted on 12/04/2003 1:54:15 AM PST by Thinkin' Gal
Jordan's King Abdullah II. President George W. Bush (news - web sites)
will again be at the centre of Middle East peace efforts Thursday as he
meets with the Jordanian monarch while putting discreet pressure on
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)
(AFP/File/Khalil Mazraawi)
WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) will again be at the centre of Middle East peace efforts as he meets Jordan's King Abdullah II while putting discreet pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites).
The Jordanian monarch is on a private visit to Washington but has brought new ideas from Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei on how to relaunch efforts to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Bush and Abdullah were due to meet Thursday.
Since Qorei's government was approved November 12 by the Palestinian parliament, there have been no attacks against Israel, and the United States has said an end to violence was a condition for pursuing its "road map" to peace.
Abdullah has stepped up his diplomatic efforts in recent weeks and asked Qorei in October for "ideas" to take to Washington.
Qorei delivered a document to the king Sunday, a day after holding talks at the US embassy in Amman with Washington's top Middle East envoy, William Burns.
Relations between Washington and Qorei are, however, far from the same close state enjoyed by the Palestinian premier's predecessor Mahmud Abbas, who was personally invited to Washington by Bush before quitting over differences with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites).
The efforts are complicated by the presence in Washington of former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo to promote their alternative peace plan, which has angered Israel and received a lukewarm response from the US administration.
The United States has insisted that the "road map" it drew up with the European Union (news - web sites), Russia and United Nations (news - web sites) -- but badly battered by violence by Palestinian groups and Israel's security barrier -- remains the best way to achieve peace.
The blueprint -- launched at a summit in May between Bush, King Abdullah, Abbas and Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- lays out several stages leading to the creation of a Palestinian state in 2005.
But talks have broken down and much attention is now focused on the Geneva Initiative.
To Israel's dismay, US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and Burns are to meet Beilin and Rabbo on Friday.
Powell and the White House have insisted the "road map" remains the US priority. "The road map is definitely not dead," Powell said Wednesday during a trip to Morocco.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Private efforts can be useful in helping move forward on progress." But he added: "The best path forward toward achieving the president's vision of two states living side-by-side in peace and security in the Middle East is the road map."
Israel will certainly be angered by Powell's meeting with the Geneva Initiative authors. Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said such a meeting would be an "error and an incorrect decision by a senior official from the American administration."
But the US president expressed his growing impatience with the Israeli prime minister during a recent trip to London when he called on Israel to end unauthorised settlements in Palestinian territories, stop the "humiliation" of Palestinians and criticised the security barrier that encroaches onto Palestinian territory.
The US envoy reaffirmed Washington's criticism when he met Sharon last weekend in Israel. But Sharon in turn reaffirmed his hard line: that Israel will not compromise its security.
I think the appropriate term is successful attacks. The IDF stopped 15 suicide attacks in November and two just yesterday. Note how AFP lies.
Good catch. Too bad there haven't been more work accidents.
U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) speaks as Jordan's King Abdullah looks in his direction during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, December 4, 2003. The two leaders met to discuss the peace process in the Middle East and the situation in Iraq (news - web sites). REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
What's with the stern face? Right on la mark.
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