U.S. President Bush intends in the coming days to propose the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional boundaries, most likely in September, with negotiations over permanent borders to be completed within three years, U.S. and diplomatic sources said, according to The Washington Post.
The president is expected to propose that the plan be adopted at an international conference, tentatively set for September, provided measurable progress has been made in revamping Palestinian security forces and reducing violence against Israeli civilians, the sources added. Achievement of the three-year deadline for final settlement of the most difficult Israeli-Palestinian issues, including the status of Jerusalem and of Palestinian refugees, will also be dependent on measurable benchmarks for both sides, the sources said, according to the newspaper.
Bush's speech, which had been scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, was postponed in the wake of the latest Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 19 Israelis in southern Jerusalem. Sources said that a new date has not been set but that plans are to deliver the speech between Thursday and Monday. Bush is scheduled to depart Tuesday for a two-day summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Canada.
The president was told of the latest attack in a 5 a.m. telephone call Tuesday from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. "The general feeling was, you couldn't walk out in the Rose Garden tomorrow and talk about 'a peace proposal' given what happened," one source told the daily. The administration also wanted to see what Israel's response to the bombing would be, sources said. (Albawaba.com)
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