Posted on 05/06/2004 8:47:00 AM PDT by yonif
.S. President George W. Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah are scheduled to meet Thursday in Washington for talks on the Middle East. The meeting was delayed by the Jordanian king in the wake of Bush's meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month.
U.S. officials said that Bush, despite his recent assurances to Israel on the return of Palestinian refugees and the absorption of West Bank settlement blocs, is expected to give Abdullah a letter saying that Palestinians and Israelis must negotiate key issues.
The two will discuss Sharon's initiative to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, which was defeated earlier in the week in a referendum of Likud members, and the situation in Iraq, Israel Radio reported Thursday.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday expressed support for Sharon's plan.
"The Likud party didn't vote for it. But when we look at the Israeli public, there's an 80 percent approval rating for this kind of initiative," Powell said.
He voiced the hope that the plan would ultimately be accepted by the Israeli public, despite the Likud rejection.
"And to the extent that the president's embrace of this initiative helped generate that kind of support within the Israeli public, that's useful. And I think Prime Minister Sharon will be able to use the president's embracing of the plan, and this public support, to ultimately prevail in getting the plan approved and we can move forward."
Asked if Abdullah would receive a letter from the United States, Powell told reporters, "We'll see the king tomorrow and I think the king will be pleased."
One U.S. official said the letter would reiterate Bush's commitment to the idea that "final status issues need to be negotiated through the two parties" and to his vision of an Israeli and a Palestinian state living in peace.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the letter to Abdullah would chiefly cover U.S.-Jordanian bilateral issues.
Bush administration officials have argued that the letter to Sharon was necessary to give a push to the prime minister's plan to withdraw from all 21 settlements in Gaza and from four of 120 settlements in the West Bank.
Why does the world keep talk of peace with a Palestinian Authority terrorist regime? Did it quickly forget the murders of the Jewish mother and her 5 murders on Sunday? They want to give a state or more land to these terrorists?
If "pleasing the king" was important, the USA would not exist.
That rumbling sound you hear is the Founding Fathers all turning in the ground.
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