Bush on brink of unveiling Mideast peace proposals

Momentum is building for President George W. Bush to announce his peace plan for the Middle East - possibly supporting the declaration of an interim Palestinian state.

Bush is poised to unveil his proposals next week, having completed his consultations with key players. This week he met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, exchanging with him "a variety of ideas on how to move forward" during a 20-minute meeting in the Oval Office.

He also met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and last weekend he saw Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Camp David.

There is speculation that Bush could announce his support for the declaration of an independent state as a way of trying to move the Middle East situation forward.

Despite his evident lack of trust in the Palestinian leadership, he seems certain to support the rebuilding of key Palestinian institutions and the revival of political talks between the Palestinians and Israel.

"I was very pleased with what I heard from the President," said Prince al-Faisal as he left the White House, declining to go into specifics.

Speculation about Bush's proposals has been mounting since Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview this week with the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat that it might be necessary to establish an interim state.

In comments that some observers chose to interpret as evidence of a rift between Bush and Powell, the White House was quick to stress that the secretary's suggestions were not official policy.

But while Powell's comments may have been somewhat premature, it seems that he and Bush are essentially in agreement over the way forward.

Bush said last year that a two-nation solution was the only credible option for Israel and the Palestinians and there were unconfirmed reports that he had informed Sharon this week of his intention to announce support for an interim state.

In the Middle East, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has convened a new Cabinet and said he would soon announce a date for fresh elections, Powell's comments regarding an interim state received a cautious response.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, responded coolly, saying: "I don't know what he means by that. The main thing here is to end the Israeli occupation and to have Israel withdraw."

Arafat opened the meeting of his reshuffled cabinet in Ramallah after Israeli forces ended a three-day siege of the West Bank city which prevented the session from taking place earlier in the week.

"The municipal elections will be held as soon as possible and legislative and presidential elections will be held in either December or January," Arafat said. "In the next few days we will issue an official order to set the date for these elections."

Arafat has pared down his Cabinet to 21 ministers and has said he will streamline his security services as part of a reform of his Palestinian Authority called for by Palestinian lawmakers, the United States and Israel. The Cabinet will serve as government until elections are held.

At the United Nations, the mutual recriminations continued their customary course. The Palestinians accused Sharon of being an enemy of peace and Israel accused Arafat of not "lifting a finger" to fight terrorism.

With Syria's UN ambassador presiding at the open Security Council meeting, Israeli UN envoy Yehuda Lancry wasted no time in lashing out at Syria's Government, saying it glorified suicide attacks against Israeli civilians and harboured Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.

But Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN observer, expressed pride in seeing "sister Syria" holding the council presidency and lambasted Sharon for trying to destroy the Palestinian Authority and prevent a political deal so Israel can continue its "colonisation" and build more settlements.

The open council meeting was the first on the Middle East during Syria's presidency. Last week, Syrian UN Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe denied a report that Syria did not want an open meeting because of the difficulty of addressing Lancry as "the distinguished representative of Israel" - the traditional diplomatic language used to introduce speakers.

On Thursday, Wehbe dropped the word "distinguished" from his introduction, simply calling Lancry "the representative of Israel", and did the same with all other speakers.

Lancry dwelt on the Palestinian failure to control suicide bombers, saying Arafat "pretends to partake of the fruit of peace, but he is nourished by the practice of terrorism".

"Chairman Arafat has yet to lift a finger to fight terror," he said, stressing that terrorists freely roam the streets "despite the presence of tens of thousands of Palestinian security personnel".

Only pre-emptive action by Israel's security forces can prevent terror attacks, Lancry said.

But Al-Kidwa said Sharon's real purpose "is to incur further devastation and destruction and if possible to create a state of chaos on the Palestinian side".

- INDEPENDENT and AGENCIES

Feature: Middle East

Related links