NEW YORK, Nov 9: The Saudi Arabian government is “angrily frustrated” that US President George Bush has failed to launch a new Middle East peace initiative, the Saudi foreign minister said in a press report on Friday.
The lack of commitment shown by Bush, who has never met Arafat, to a final peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians “makes a sane man go mad”, the New York Times quoted Saud al-Faisal as saying in Riyadh before his departure for the weekend session of the United Nations General Assembly.
If President Bush was to assume the role of an “honest broker” in the region, he would have to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in New York, the paper quoted Prince Saud al-Faisal as saying.
“The thing that is so sad is that what is needed to make peace is very little,” he said.
On Thursday, Bush’s national security advisor Condoleezza Rice said the president would not meet Arafat at the United Nations gathering because he does not believe that Arafat has done enough to combat terrorism.
The head of the Palestinian people had to do everything he could to “to lower the level of violence” and “root out terrorists”, Rice said.
“We still don’t think there has been enough in that regard,” she said. “You cannot help us with Al Qaeda and hug Hezbollah or Hamas.”
The Saudi foreign minister stressed Saudi Arabia’s full support for the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
Although the US has repeatedly praised the Saudi stance, doubts have been expressed behind the scenes in Washington that Riyadh is not consistent in its pursuit of terrorists.
PALESTINIAN ANGERED: Palestinian officials accused the United States on Friday of bowing to Israeli demands by ruling out talks between President George W. Bush and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the United Nations.
In fresh fighting, Palestinian medical officials said a deaf Palestinian man died in hospital after being shot by soldiers in the Gaza Strip and Israeli police said Palestinians killed a Jewish woman settler in an attack on her car in the West Bank.
The United States is urging Israel and the Palestinians to end 13 months of conflict which it fears could threaten Arab support for its war, but its Middle East policy has come under increasing scrutiny from the Arab world.
Palestinian officials had hoped Bush would meet Arafat at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, but US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday Arafat was not serious about the US-led anti-terror campaign.
She told reporters in Washington that Arafat was not doing enough to rein in militants “and so the president continues to make that clear to Mr Arafat and there are no plans to meet with Mr Arafat in New York”.
A US State Department official said the most the United States envisaged was an “accidental meeting” or handshake between Bush and Arafat.
Bush has refused to meet Arafat since taking office, but has met other Arab leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an Arafat aide, criticized Bush’s refusal to meet the Palestinian leader in New York.
“This is to soothe the Israeli fears and it is more to meet Sharon’s demands (that Bush does not meet Arafat),” he said.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused the United States of treating Israel as a “state above the law”. He described Israel’s occupation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as the highest level of terrorism.
“It seems that the requirements of the internal American policy are much more important than the requirements of international law, international legitimacy and security and stability in the region,” Erekat said.
In the latest bloodshed, a group affiliated with Arafat’s Fatah faction said it killed a Jewish woman settler in an ambush near the West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian medical officials said Israeli soldiers shot a deaf 30-year-old man near the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Israel. They said he did not receive immediate medical attention and died later in hospital.
The army said soldiers had shot at the legs of a man who approached the entrance of the outpost and ignored warning shots. It said medics had treated the man for his wounds before sending him by ambulance to a Palestinian hospital. —dpa / Reuters
