Posted on 08/09/2003 12:57:33 PM PDT by yonif
U.S. President George W. Bush promised Jordan's King Abdullah in a telephone call on Saturday that Washington remained committed to the international roadmap for peace in the Middle East, according to a Jordanian Royal Court statement.
Washington was "determined to fully implement" the plan which envisages the creation of an independent Palestinian state by the year 2005, the statement said.
"Bush assured the King of his full support to the roadmap as well as the U.S. keenness to implement the plan in such a manner that leads to the re-establishment of peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis," the statement said.
Bush also promised the monarch, who is currently on a private visit to the United Kingdom, that the United States "will continue to work with various parties towards a complete implementation of the roadmap", it added.
Bush's telephone call with the King, a key player in Middle East politics, coincided with a new cycle of violence in the Palestinian territories that threatened to torpedo a one-month-old truce between the Palestinians and Israel.
On Friday, Bush said that the separation fence Israel is building through the West Bank is "a problem" because it makes it hard to develop a contiguous Palestinian state.
Israel says it wants the barrier - in places a concrete wall and in others metal fencing - to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians describe it as a new "Berlin Wall" that grabs territory and reflects an attempt to create a political border.
Bush, answering questions from reporters in the driveway of his Texas ranch house, expanded on his reasons for opposing the fence in conversations with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon late last month.
"I've said the fence is a problem because the fence ... kind of meanders around the West Bank, which makes it awfully hard to develop a contiguous state over time," Bush said.
The United States has identified planned parts of the fence that may cause problems and plans to raise the issue with the Israeli government.
The New York Times, quoting a senior Israeli official, reported on Friday that Israel had agreed not to construct the segments that Washington was concerned about until it reached a compromise with the Bush administration.
The official said the Bush administration did not object in principle to the barrier but did express "a great deal of concern" about what he
described as very limited portions, particularly the planned branch around the settlement of Ariel.
"They believe that the same security production can be achieved by a different route," he said. "On this particular portion of the fence we are working now to try to find some solutions."
U.S. officials said on Tuesday that one option for pressuring Israel was to reduce the $9 billion in loan guarantees intended for housing and commercial projects. But they insisted no decision had been made and some Democratic members of Congress said they would oppose such a move.
Bush said the fence should be considered in the larger context of whether conditions can be created to allow for the emergence of a Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel.
"It's important for a Palestinian state to emerge, in our judgment, because the world will be more peaceful, Israel will be more secure and ... the Palestinians will have hope," he said.
And he repeated that the Palestinians must crack down on militants in order for a Palestinian state to emerge.
Two militants from the Palestinian group Hamas and an Israeli soldier were killed in an Israeli raid on a West Bank refugee camp on Friday that rocked a fragile month-old cease-fire and drew vows of revenge from Hamas leaders.
Washington would like Israel to give up the fence altogether, but given Israel's refusal, would like it re-routed.
"re-establishment" ? When was there an "establishment" peace, if Washington would care to answer?
I can assure you that this roadmap will implement the satisfaction for the phase-one goal of the PLO Arabs on their way to destroy Israel.
Another trait of the "people" we intend on giving a state:
A Palestinian pasting up posters of Yasser Arafat and Saddam and his sons in Jenin on Saturday. (AP)
Gee, maybe Bush will get to share a peace price with Clinton, if they can manage enough dead Jews between them.
It may make him the last Republican president in this century, though.
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