Posted on 04/16/2004 4:44:18 PM PDT by yonif
WASHINGTON - United States President George W. Bush clarified Friday that the agreement he reached with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier this week, did not predetermine the charachter of a permanent status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
"All final status issues must still be negotiated between the parties," Bush said. "I look forward to the day when those discussions can begin so the Israeli occupation can be ended and a free and independent and peaceful Palestinian state can emerge."
Bush said "this is a fantastic opportunity" to launch the Palestinians to a state on land occupied by Israel.
With British Prime Minister Tony Blair at his side at the White House, Bush said the plan "gives the Palestinians a chance to create a reformed, just and free government."
Blair expressed support for Sharon's disengagement plan and called for European nations to work for its success.
Blair said that if Israel follows through on its proposal, "the concept of a viable Palestinian state becomes a real possibility; not something that's put in a document and talked about or discussed in resolutions or speeches, but actually is a real, live possibility."
Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook wrote in a scathing front-page commentary in The Independent newspaper that Bush had abruptly abandoned the long-standing U.S. and British approach of seeking to be evenhanded brokers between Israel and the Palestinians.
"George Bush has just unplugged the road map from its life-support apparatus," Cook wrote. He "could not have delivered a worse snub to Tony Blair on the eve of their meeting."
"The prime minister may not be able to rescue the peace process, but at least he should feel freed from demonstrating solidarity with the policies in Iraq of a president who has so comprehensively failed to show solidarity with our joint policy on the Middle East," wrote Cook, who resigned his Cabinet post of leader of the House of Commons to protest the Iraq war.
I say launch at them.
I am not aware that the road map included a provision for a suicide bomber's bike path.
Hamas and the PLO made the "road map" a dead letter. Not Bush. Not Sharon.
If a regime does not want to be ignored, it must first prove itself to be responsible.
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