The Bush administration on Wednesday called a proposed Middle East peace summit "premature," saying President George W. Bush, in close coordination with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, planned to step up pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to end the Middle East crisis.
"There still is a lot of work that has to be done on the ground in the Middle East on many levels before this rises up to the summit level," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of the proposal, which was put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Abdullah met last week with Bush and officials said they agreed to closely coordinate efforts to ease tensions in the Middle East by getting Sharon to halt Israeli incursions and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to stop suicide bombings.
The coordination paid off when a deal was reached to lift the Israeli siege of Arafat's compound in Ramallah. The deal was a breakthrough for Bush, who has come under fire at home and abroad for doing too little to stop the fighting.
Fleischer said the United States hoped to move the "process of bringing peace to the region" forward when Bush meets in Washington next week with Sharon. "The president is always direct and says what he thinks with all leaders," Fleischer said. Bush will also meet next week with Jordan's King Abdullah.
Fleischer denied a New York Times report that Bush and the Saudi crown prince agreed to a "division of labor," whereby U.S. officials would press Sharon to break the psychology of violence, while Arab leaders do the same at a meeting with Arafat, perhaps in Cairo.
"The president understands that to bring peace to the region, it requires the good efforts of many parties in the region, and Saudi Arabia is playing a very positive and constructive role," Fleischer said.
But he made clear that Bush had no plans to abdicate his role in keeping pressure on Arafat and other Arab leaders. "I think it's over-simplistic to say that one group of nations is going to target one group. It's always going to be interactive," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
