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Posted on 07/29/2002 6:09:57 PM PDT by Thinkin' Gal
King Abdullah to urge Bush to adopt a plan that provides for a Palestinian state
Mon Jul 29, 4:42 PM ET
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - King Abdullah of Jordan will ask President Bush ( news - web sites) on Thursday to adopt a timetable leading to the establishment in three years of a Palestinian state on land held by Israel.
The king will also ask that international monitors be stationed in the area to oversee actions by Israel and the Palestinian Authority ( news - web sites) and he may try to discourage Bush from approving an attack on Iraq.
While Abdullah is seeing the president, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres will be in a series of talks at the Pentagon ( news - web sites), the State Department and with members of Congress.
Peres also is trying to accelerate the process of making peace between Israel and the Palestinians. A longtime dove, Peres favors major concessions by Israel.
Secretary of State Colin Powell ( news - web sites), now on a trip to Asia, is making arrangements to meet with Palestinians upon his return to Washington next week.
Bush has called for replacing Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites) as the Palestinian leader and accused the Palestinian Authority, which he heads, of corruption and involvement in terror attacks against Israel.
But the shunning of Arafat does not appear to exclude high-level U.S. meetings with Palestinians appointed to their posts by Arafat.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Monday, "We are looking for people who can make a difference, who can speak for the Palestinian community."
Who these Palestinians are, and will be coming to Washington, is under discussion with the Palestinian Authority.
Abdullah, whose kingdom has a peace treaty with Israel, will probably encourage wider U.S. contact with the Palestinians and renew his opposition to attacking Iraq to remove President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites).
He called the idea "somewhat ludicrous" over the weekend.
In the meantime, the State Department announced the names of Iraqi opposition figures who are being invited to meet in Washington in August with department and Pentagon officials.
They are Sharif Ali bin-Hussein of the Constitutional Monarchy Movement; Iyad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord, Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Reeker said the aim was "to increase the level of coordination and cooperation among these groups."
Critics have discounted their chances of toppling Saddam, partly because the groups have differing positions.
Acknowledging this, Reeker said the opponents of Saddam invited to Washington represent "a variety of different factions, perhaps different views," and the Bush administration intended to try to narrow those differences.
"But our policy remains quite clear," the spokesman said. "We are watching Iraq. We believe that regime change there would benefit us all."
Jordan's position on these issues was outlined by Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary William Burns in meetings on Monday.
Muasher said "it's important to meet directly" with senior Palestinian officials.
Jordan backs a proposal by Saudi Arabia that offers peace to Israel if it surrenders all the territory the Arabs lost in the 1967 Mideast war and turns it over to the Palestinian Authority for a state.
Bush has resisted taking steps in that direction, except to approve an ongoing attempt by the Central Intelligence Agency ( news - web sites) to develop methods of shielding Israel from Palestinian attacks.
Jordan and other Arab governments want the Bush administration to move more quickly. Powell seems agreeable, but other presidential advisers have insisted that terror attacks be stopped first.
The idea is to set up specific markers toward Palestinian statehood.
Two demands by the Arabs are prompt withdrawal by Israel from the West Bank and a freeze on Jewish housing construction there.
In the long run, the Bush administration is committed to both but has not set a timetable.
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Your majesties can kiss my royal Hebrew @$$!
Somebody told me that Peres' mother is French.
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