Bush says Arafat has 'failed as a leader'

CAMP DAVID, Md. -- President Bush told Palestinians on Thursday that they must have a leader who fights terror if they want peace. He said Yasser Arafat "has failed as a leader" and blamed him for forcing the resignation of a prime minister committed to the peace process.

Turning to Iraq, Bush said he does not expect a new U.S.-backed resolution on Iraqi reconstruction to be ready by the time he goes before the U.N. General Assembly next Tuesday.

"We're still working it," he told reporters as he met at the presidential retreat here with Jordan's King Abdullah II, a vital ally in the Middle East.

The United States is seeking Security Council backing for a resolution that would clear the way for additional peacekeeping troops and money to finance Iraq's reconstruction from other countries. Administration officials had hoped to have it ready by Bush's U.N. appearance next Tuesday.

On Mideast peace efforts, Bush said he regretted that former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas had been forced to resign. "At every turn he was undercut by the old order," Bush said. He specifically noted that he was referring to Arafat.

"Hopefully, at some point in time, a leadership of the Palestinian Authority will emerge which will then commit itself 100 percent to fighting off terror," Bush said.

The president noted that he had last met Abdullah three months ago in Aqaba, Jordan, when the king hosted a three-way summit among Bush, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to launch a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.

Abbas resigned Sept. 6 after power struggles with Arafat, who has hand-picked Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qureia to succeed Abbas.

For his part, Abdullah praised Bush for the "strong genuine dedication you have shown" in attempting to get the peace process going.

"It took a lot of courage to come to the Middle East," Abdullah said. "Unfortunately, there is a lull at the moment," he added, speaking in English.

Bush and Abdullah talked to reporters in a helicopter hangar on the presidential retreat, seeking cover there from the approaching winds and rain of Hurricane Isabel.

Despite initial reluctance of other major countries to step forward with troops or money to help stabilize and rebuild Iraq, Bush said he was encouraged that some nations like Britain and Poland were leading multinational forces in Iraq.

Bush said he would "continue to make the case that reconstruction aid is necessary."

Asked by a reporter if the new resolution would be ready in time for his U.N. appearance on Tuesday, Bush said, "No, I don't think so. It could be. We'll continue to work it, though."

Bush said that the resolution "must promote an orderly transfer of sovereignty to what will be a freely elected government based upon a constitution."

Later, Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, suggested that the resolution could be completed later next week.

"There will be a lot of face time" at the U.N. gathering, she said. "We'll have a lot of chance to talk with counterparts. And it seemed like a better idea than trying to press something forward now."

Other world powers, including France, Germany and Russia, have resisted taking a more active role in Iraqi reconstruction in the absence of specific U.N. authorization, and a larger role for the international organization and for themselves.

Bush also will meet at the United Nations with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Wolfgang Schauble, deputy chairman of the conservative opposition in the German Bundestag, said Thursday that the meeting could help bridge trans-Atlantic differences on Iraq, but only if Bush "shows he's not going in a unilateral way."

"You cannot have world order only through strength. The world is more complicated," Schauble said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The United States is attempting to define the terms of a more active U.N. role in Iraq amid rising American military casualties and a more expensive and more complex reconstruction effort than previously expected.

On the Middle East, Bush said: "Mr. Arafat has failed as a leader...The people of the Palestinian territories must understand that if they want peace, they must have leadership who is absolutely 100 percent committed to fighting off terror."

"I remain committed -- solidly committed -- to the vision of two states living side by side in peace and security. Yet that will only happen with new Palestinian leadership committed to fighting terror not compromised by terror," he added.

Meanwhile, a political irritant arose to cloud the Bush-Abdullah session as the United States called on Jordan to restore its freeze on the bank accounts of six leaders of Hamas, an extremist group that has killed scores of Israelis with suicide bombings.

Jordan's Central Bank retracted a decision this week that had frozen the accounts of six leaders of Hamas and five charities that allegedly funnel money to the group, a minister said Tuesday.

"Jordan has been an important ally in the war on terrorists, including the financial war on terrorism," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday. "We urge the government of Jordan to restore its order to freeze the assets of these Hamas leaders and charities."

"President Bush told Palestinians on Thursday that they must have a leader who fights terror if they want peace. He said Yasser Arafat "has failed as a leader" and blamed him for forcing the resignation of a prime minister committed to the peace process."

I guess the President didn't get the memo from Abbas that he had NO INTENTION of carrying out the "road map" -

Abbas: I avoided Road Map compliance
By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff

Jerusalem - September 11, 2003

Jerusalem (jnewswire.com) - During his resignation speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council on Saturday, former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said he did everything possible to avoid compliance with the US-backed Road Map to Middle East peace.

Despite the meeting being closed to the press, the London Quds Press Arabic news agency obtained the text of Abbas' speech, which was translated by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).

Never wanted security control or unity

Abbas told the PLC on Saturday that, contrary to reports in the American and Israeli press, he had never sought to wrest control of the Palestinian security forces from Yasser Arafat, nor had he agreed with Washington on establishing a unified security apparatus.

"Many say I want to place the security services at my disposal and command and want to free them from [Arafat's] grip. This is false and it has never happened. I do not want the security services to be at my disposal," Abbas said.

According to the Road Map, control of all Palestinian security forces was to be consolidated under the new Palestinian prime minister to be used in the battle to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.

Abbas admitted that, his signature on the document notwithstanding, he had rejected America's expressed desire that he unify the PA security forces and place them under his command.

"The road map says: All security services are at the disposal of the prime minister. I did not even ask for the unification of the services… When the Americans spoke about the unity of the services, we told them we do not want that," the former premier continued.

'I didn't even approve the Road Map'

Going even further, Abbas noted that he and his government had not been the ones to originally approve the Road Map, indicating he may have opposed the US plan had Arafat's regime not previously accepted it.

Abbas asserted that Arafat spokesman Saeb Erekat had first approved the peace plan on December 20, 2002. Nonetheless, Jerusalem Newswire notes that Abbas insisted through the spring of 2003 that he and the PA had accepted the Road Map and its terms without reservations, while Israel was the one dragging its feet.

"In order to give a way for the peace process, we have dropped down all our reservations, and we said that we accept [the road map] as it is," Abbas told reporters following a meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Jericho on May 11.

'We surmounted the obstacle of having to fight terror'

Appearing to list off his accomplishments as prime minister, Abbas told the PLC: "The road map calls for the unification of the security services. We surmounted this obstacle. It called for striking and uprooting the [terrorist] organizations. We surmounted this obstacle, too."

Abbas explained that the result had been the PA-brokered terrorist ceasefire, or hudna, "which the Israelis and Americans rejected, but was imposed on them."

"They were told there was no other solution [than the hudna] although the road map, which we approved, said the so-called terrorist organizations should be pounded and uprooted," the Fatah co-founder admitted.

In this way, Abbas continued, "we got over or tried to get over the tragedy in which we would have put ourselves if we had listened to them [the Americans and Israelis]."

http://www.jnewswire.com/news_archive/03/09/030911_abbas.asp

"Hopefully, at some point in time, a leadership of the Palestinian Authority will emerge which will then commit itself 100 percent to fighting off terror," Bush said.

OK. So he agrees that the PLO is not fighting terrorism. Of course not, it is a terrorist organization itself.

If you just said that the PA is not fighting terror, why are you mentioning this committment to two states? How can you have such a vision when the PA practices terrorism? We should instead say we have no such vision as long as the PA is a terror regime.

Why are you still committed to this roadmap and still want to discuss "peace" with Arafat's picks?

"Jordan has been an important ally in the war on terrorists, including the financial war on terrorism,"

State Dept. is full of morons. They say Jordan is a strong ally in the war on terrorism, yet...

"We urge the government of Jordan to restore its order to freeze the assets of these Hamas leaders and charities."

Why the double talk?

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