The Bush administration promised Arab allies on Thursday that it would work "as hard as possible" to bring about a Palestinian state through a political solution within three years.
"Only a political solution will bring an end to this tragic situation," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters after lunch at the State Department with the visiting foreign minister of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
"I reaffirmed to my colleagues President (George W.) Bush's commitment ... to working as hard as possible to try to achieve a final settlement within the three-year period," he added. On Thursday, Powell repeated the U.S. position that security must take priority over other aspects. "We talked once again about the importance of three tracks moving in parallel if not necessarily in perfect synchronization. It's important for us to keep working on the security track," he said.
The Egyptian minister, Ahmed Maher, said earlier that they would put their concerns about U.S. policy to Bush when they see him at the White House in the afternoon. He said Egypt wanted Washington's plans amended to redress what Arabs see as an imbalance between immediate demands on Palestinians and future demands on Israel. He also told reporters the United States was mistaken in trying to isolate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"Yasser Arafat is in our opinion the only Palestinian leader who has the authority ... to sign an agreement with the Israelis and have it implemented. In the present situation, there can be no substitute," Maher said.
After lunch with Powell, the Arab ministers said they liked what they heard but gave few details. "We are more encouraged by what we heard from the secretary today that this journey is going in the right direction," said Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
"We leave here encouraged .... (about) the U.S. firm commitment to an endgame that will be achieved in three years' time," added Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan al-Muasher. "We leave also encouraged because of what we heard of the need to translate the vision into a detailed plan," he added.
Maher said: "We are determined to go forward, to respect the time frame that the president has mentioned in his speech." Speaking at breakfast earlier in the day, Maher spelt out in detail Arab reservations about the U.S. approach.
"It seemed to us that in the speech everything the Palestinians have to do is upfront and everything the Israelis have to do is delayed and is conditional on the will of the Israeli government. I don't think this is a good formula. "What we want to do is to reshuffle the vision that has been expressed by the American government and to create links between the obligations of both sides," Maher said.
"No plan is carved in rock and when the president expressed his vision (on June 24), I don't think he expected everybody to say OK to each and every sentence. ... We will have to come up with a formula that is acceptable to all," he added.
Meanwhile, Powell on Thursday named Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Faiad and Interior Minister Abdel-Razzak al-Yahya as appointees of Yasser Arafat that Washington could deal with.
"Those are two individuals that seem to be not only asserting authority and trying to work on the transformation, but seem to be acting with authority," Powell told the Diane Rehm show on National Public Radio. "So those are two that perhaps might start to fill the role that I think is badly needed to be filled," he added.
"These two ministers were appointed by President Arafat and they answer and report to him," Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters.
Powell acknowledged that Arafat appointed them, but added: "It's not simply a question of...standing back and doing nothing while we wait for a total change in leadership. "We are trying to identify those leaders who recognize that what they have been doing in the recent past has not moved them close to their vision of a Palestinian state," he added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
