CIA Director George J. Tenet will meet with three Palestinian ministers Saturday amid signs the Bush administration is nearing completion of a plan to tighten security on the West Bank and in Gaza. "In the next few days we expect to get something started with respect to security," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said after talking for 75 minutes Thursday with the ministers.
"I reaffirmed to ministers that the president is committed to doing everything possible to find a way forward, recognizing the difficulties that exist and condemning the violence that afflicts the region and occasionally thwarts our ability to move forward," Powell added. "But we will not be deterred, we will continue to move forward," he stated.
The Palestinian interior minister in charge of security services, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, said he planned to meet Tenet, and an administration official said a meeting was set for Saturday. "I am hopeful," the minister said in a brief interview. He declined to say whether a new U.S. plan was nearly complete.
The PA ministers met at the White House with Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, and then at the State Department with Secretary of State Colin Powell. Bush's pledge to establish a Palestinian state was reaffirmed by Rice, spokesman Sean McCormack said. She "underscored that we are committed to moving this agenda forward," McCormack told reporters.
Yasser Arafat's replacement by new leaders did not come up on Thursday, McCormack said. "He was not a topic of discussion."
Saeb Erekat, Arafat's chief negotiator, told reporters after meeting Powell that Arafat was the elected leader of the Palestinians and the delegation represented him. "As far as President Arafat is concerned, we made sure that this delegation is fully mandated by President Arafat and by the Palestinian leadership. We are not a delegation of freelancers," Erekat said.
"We get our legitimacy from our President Arafat and the Palestinian Authority and we want people to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people," he said. "President Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people."
Erekat said he was assured by Powell that "the end game is specified with a Palestinian state. We really hope to see an action plan that will define the timeline, the mechanism for implementation and the way stations that will take us toward this end game." "We reassured the secretary of Palestinian commitment to peace, to reviving the peace process, and to put it back on track because that's the real interest of Palestinians and Israelis, and we must begin a process of de-escalation," Erekat said.
Sharon
Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon reiterated his view that the Palestinian Authority must undergo radical reforms, referring to the Palestinian ruling body as a "gang of murderers" with whom it was not possible to make peace.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the National Security Academy, Sharon said: "We can't hold peace talks with the gang of terrorists that is the Palestinian Authority. Rooting them out is the only way to reach peace." He also said a reform of Palestinian finance institutions was needed to "prevent money from helping terrorists."
The prime minister stressed that Israel was not targeting the Palestinian population, but rather those linked to “terror,” and said that Israel would do everything in its power to help the Palestinians who were not involved in terror. "Israel is not at war with the Palestinian people," said Sharon. "I am conscious of the suffering they are enduring and that is why I asked for everything to be done to facilitate their lives."
He said that he believed the Palestinians also desired peace and called on them to disgorge their "rule of terror."
Israel's hand continues to be extended in peace he told the audience, and implored the Israeli people to not give in to the recent "sense of anger and frustration." Such feelings of despair, he said, "never lead to victory."
But Sharon said there was no "miracle solution in the fight against terrorism." "Even the security closure that we are currently building as fast as possible is not a miracle solution," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
