U.S. President Bush said Monday he shared Israel's disappointment with Yasser Arafat as he headed into talks at the White House with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"He has disappointed me," Bush said as he toured a school in Southfield, Mich. "He must lead. He must show the world that he believes in peace."
The president declined to preview his White House meeting with the Israeli prime minister. "I am going to have a private conversation with Ariel Sharon, " Bush said. But, according to AP, Bush said Israel's resistance to meeting with Arafat is an expression of disappointment in his ability to lead.
"After all, right before we had a security agreement done, a shipload of ammunition showed up that can probably be aimed at the Israeli citizens. So there is a high level of disappointment," Bush said.
Still, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush's view is that Sharon must negotiate with Arafat because he is the head of the Palestinian Authority. "The president's focus is going to be on peace," Fleischer said Monday. "The ingredients are there for progress to be made. It just requires time and patience," the spokesman said.
Sharon met with Secretary of State Colin Powell at his hotel and was due to meet later Monday with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, then hold separate talks Tuesday with Bush and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
According to Israel Radio, Sharon told Powell that Israel would not change its demands regarding the wanted Palestinians holed up inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
He also stressed that an end to “terror” attacks and a complete reform of the Palestinian Authority were prerequisites to any progress toward reaching a final settlement with the Palestinians.
Also on Monday, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, called on Powell, as well. Afterward he said his government could not endorse the U.S. proposal for a Mideast peace conference. "It's not a bad idea," Saud said. But he said his government needed to know more about what would transpire at the meeting.
"The conference or a meeting is not an objective in itself, it depends on what that meeting includes and until these ideas are cleared, I don't think we can give an opinion on that," the prince said after talks with Powell at the State Department. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
