White House - AP
Bush Defends Sharon's Withdrawal Plan
Date: Fri, Apr 16, 2004
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - Trying to counter Arab outrage and European dismay, President Bush (news - web sites) said Friday a pathway to peace was opened by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s pledge to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
"It gives the Palestinians a chance to create a reformed, just and free government," Bush said two days after he blessed Sharon's plan in the White House Oval Office. "Palestinian leadership must rise to the occasion."
As British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) stood at his side, Bush described the developments as a fantastic opportunity to launch the Palestinians to a state on land occupied by Israel for 37 years.
Bush did not repeat, however, his endorsement Wednesday of Sharon's idea that Israel will retain large population centers on the West Bank. Nor did he again say that Palestinian refugees seeking resettlement should live in the state he hopes will be established next year rather than in Israel.
The Palestinians, with overwhelming European support, claim all the West Bank, which Israel took from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Blair also avoided the controversy over Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees by focusing on a need to get negotiations started between Israel and the Palestinians.
He did advocate a prompt meeting of the United States, the European Union (news - web sites), the United Nations (news - web sites) and Russia — co-sponsors of the U.S.-generated "road map" peace plan — to seize the opportunity presented by Sharon's withdrawal offer and consider how to help the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) to respond to it.
Meantime, Blair's one-time foreign secretary, Robin Cook, accused Bush in a front-page commentary in London's The Independent of abandoning evenhanded treatment of Israel and the Palestinians.
Bush "could not have delivered a worse snub to Tony Blair on the eve of their meeting," Cook wrote.
Palestinian leaders have gone further and accused Bush of undermining any hopes for negotiations. Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), leader of the Palestinian Authority, warned this week that Bush's statement on settlements and refugees could ignite violence.
Bush said Wednesday that "new realities" on the West Bank, meaning concentrations of Israeli settlers, could not be overlooked in determining the makeup of the Israeli and Palestinian states to emerge eventually.
Other administrations also have taken positions on major issues, and "obviously that has an influence on the future of negotiations," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "But it doesn't determine the outcome. The outcome is determined by the parties."
Boucher gave no specific examples. But Bush's predecessor, President Clinton (news - web sites), took the position that Israel should turn over virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza and part of Jerusalem to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.
No agreement was reached after Arafat failed to win recognition of a "right of return" for Palestinians who claim their families were removed from family lands in Israel and exiled during the Jewish state's founding 56 years ago.
At the White House news conference Friday, Bush said it really was up to Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate the provisions of an agreement.
"I look forward to the day when those discussions can begin so the Israeli occupation can be ended and a free and independent and peaceful Palestinian state can emerge," he said.
In his remarks, Blair also welcomed Israel's proposed withdrawal and said the "road map" for peacemaking with the Palestinians remained "the only realistic course" to a settlement.
The prime minister said the so-called Quartet should meet as soon as possible to discuss how it could support the Palestinian Authority economically, politically and with security in its response to Sharon's overture.
Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, hosting a meeting of European leaders in Ireland, also suggested a high-level meeting of the four parties.
European Officials said they expected foreign ministers to meet in Berlin on April 28.
But in Washington, a senior U.S. official said making arrangements was complicated and that no time or location had been chosen for a Quartet meeting.
Cowen said the "road map" did not envision Israel's annexation of five Jewish population concentrations on the West Bank, as Sharon proposed and Bush appeared to back.
He said whatever Israel should offer or the United States should recommend, any agreement would require Palestinian acceptance.
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