- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The
United States said Israel and the Palestinians had to share responsibility
for ending a cycle of violence and pledged to help bring about a Palestinian
state through political means within three years.
-
- President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell made
the comments on the same day Israel suspended plans to hold talks with
moderate Palestinians after a double suicide bombing killed three people
in Tel Aviv.
-
- Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who was
among Arab foreign ministers who met Bush, said all Palestinian factions,
including militant Islamic group Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were working
on a cease-fire in their conflict with Israelis.
-
- "They are all working on a paper that has all the
conditions that they will subscribe to for stopping the fighting,"
he said, with little elaboration.
-
- Wednesday's double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and a
bus ambush which killed seven Israelis in the West Bank a day before ended
a month of relative calm.
-
- The attacks undermined hopes of reviving peacemaking
but in a comment greeted by both sides, Powell said two new Palestinian
ministers, named under international pressure for reform, were people Washington
could deal with.
-
- Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's office
said plans had been drawn up to relax curbs imposed on Palestinian civilians
after the army reoccupied seven West Bank cities last month, but they had
now been frozen.
-
- "Israel is striving to ease the conditions as much
as possible for the broader Palestinian population but Palestinian terror
is continuing to perpetuate (their) suffering," it said.
-
- After suicide bombings killed 26 people in Jerusalem
on June 18-19, the army entered all but one of the West Bank's main Palestinian
cities, saying it was to keep bombers out of Israel.
-
- Suicide attacks and shooting ambushes have characterized
a 21-month-old Palestinian uprising for an independent state in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel took in the 1967 Middle East war and
sprinkled with Jewish settlements.
-
- BUSH PLACATES ARABS
-
- In Washington, Arab foreign ministers said they detected
a commitment by Washington to work hard for a Palestinian state.
-
- Prince Saud told reporters after the Oval Office meeting
that ministers were happy Bush said peace would only come if all sides
took their responsibilities seriously.
-
- "Our vision for peace understands that all parties
have got responsibilities. The United States has a responsibility... The
Israelis have a responsibility. The Palestinians have a responsibility,"
Bush told reporters ahead of the meeting.
-
- Powell, who also met the Arab ministers, gave a commitment
to work "as hard as possible" to bring about a Palestinian state
through a political solution within three years.
-
- "We also focused on the third track -- the need
for clear understanding among all parties that only a political solution
will bring an end to this tragic situation," he said.
-
- Powell welcomed the naming of Salam Faiad as Palestinian
Authority finance minister and Abdel Razzak al-Yahya as interior minister.
-
- "Those are two individuals who seem to be not only
asserting authority and trying to work on the transformation, but seem
to be acting with authority," Powell said earlier.
-
- Both the Palestinian Authority and Israel welcomed Powell's
announcement.
-
- The United States has demanded a new Palestinian Authority
"not compromised by terror" as a condition for Palestinian statehood,
and ended contacts with President Yasser Arafat, who has denied sponsoring
violence against Israelis.
-
- Arabs disagree with the U.S. demand for new Palestinian
leaders but participants in the Washington talks said the campaign to replace
Arafat did not figure prominently in the discussions.
-
- Though briefing reporters after the talks, Prince Saud
blamed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for holding up Middle East peace
and said he would be more optimistic for peace if he were "not there."
-
- "It must change by the Israelis themselves, those
who want peace...If they leave it to Sharon, he will lead the Middle East
only to tragedy and conflict," he said.
-
- TALKS ON HOLD
-
- An Israeli government spokesman said plans for talks
with moderate Palestinians remained on hold after the new bloodshed. The
meetings were meant to build on talks held last week -- the first high-level
contacts between the sides in four months.
-
- Israel again blamed the Palestinian Authority for the
fresh attacks. But the Authority, whose rule over West Bank cities in force
since 1994-95 interim peace deals has been rolled back by the army reoccupation,
denied responsibility.
-
- At least 1,447 Palestinians and 559 Israelis have been
killed since Palestinians began their revolt after negotiations for a final
peace treaty envisaging a Palestinian state stalled.
|
