US President George W. Bush confirmed media reports Tuesday that creating a Palestinian state had always been part of his country’s vision of peace in the Middle East.
But he tied his vision to Israel’s right to exist.
"The idea of a Palestinian state has always been part of a vision, so long as the right to Israel to exist is respected," he was quoted as saying by AFP in the White House.
But he dismissed those reports Tuesday as "speculation."
"I fully understand that progress is made in centimeters in the Middle East. And we believe we're making some progress," Bush said.
His latest words signal a dramatic shift in hi administration’s policies towards the Middle East, as he implied that he would take a more hands-on approach in dealing with the Middle East crisis.
“We are working diligently with both sides to encourage a reduction of violence so that meaningful discussions can take place," Bush was quoted by the Washington Post as saying.
The paper further quoted him as saying the United States still backed a proposal drafted by former Senator George Mitchell about paving the way for a return to peace negotiations.
He also stood by Mitchell’s recommendations for reviving the stumbling peace process in the region, calling those recommendations "a viable blueprint that most of the world agrees with is a necessary path to ultimately solving the problems of the Middle East.”
Senior US officials had said earlier on Tuesday that Washington's plans to unveil a major Middle East peace initiative, including possible support for a Palestinian state, were stalled by the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
"We had started in fact to make more strenuous efforts in the Middle East," an unnamed State Department official was quoted by AFP as saying.
According to various officials, the potential plan centered around paving the way to a key meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
"In the run up to the UN, the main thrust of the plan was to revolve around the meetings with Peres and Arafat," another official told AFP.
The meeting did take place under US pressure, but a truce that the meeting brought is growing shakier, especially in light of the postponement of any UN backing.
"We had been looking at the UN session not as time to unveil a plan but to get some momentum," the official said. "We haven't proceeded exactly as we might have after the attacks but the basic outline is still in play."
However, contradicting reports by the New York Times and the Washington post that Secretary of State Colin Powell was to announce the fresh US peace plan in a speech to the UN General Assembly, one official denied that Powell was to voice such support to a Palestinian state, according to AFP.
That official, described as close to Powell, said the secretary had not planned to make such a speech and that Bush's address to the world body was not intended to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Voicing such support for a Palestinian state would have been the first a Republican administration would have done so.
"The secretary doesn't make a UN speech and the president's speech wasn't going to be a Middle East speech," the official said.
According to the Post, Powell would have laid out general principles for the settlement of the most difficult issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including determining final borders and the return and status of Palestinian refugees.
But, citing an administration official, the daily said a final decision had not yet been made and that some in the White House were hesitating over favoring Palestinian statehood.
The Times reported that the decision to move ahead with the new initiative was made in early September at a meeting of the National Security Council and that Bush, now preoccupied with forging a global coalition against terrorism, may still make a forceful declaration on the Middle East crisis.
A clear statement from the US administration in favor of a Palestinian state would meet demands from moderate Arab states that Washington has been trying to rally to its anti-terrorism campaign – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
