Bush to offer guarantees on roadmap to Jordan: Move to assuage Abdullah
WASHINGTON, April 28: US President George W. Bush plans to offer Jordan's King Abdullah II assurances next week that the United States has not pre-judged the outcome of eventual peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians
, US officials said on Tuesday.
The assurances would come in the form of written letters of guarantee or statements of clarification aimed at assuaging Arab anger and confusion over Bush's April 14 endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial disengagement plan, the officials said.
Under plans now being finalized by US and Jordanian diplomats, King Abdullah would also present written documents to Bush pledging Jordan's support for Palestinian reform efforts as Israel moves to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip under the Sharon plan, the officials said.
"They are planning an exchange of letters clarifying where things stand now and how we both think things should proceed," one official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The official said the statement would assert that while welcoming the Sharon plan, the United States remained firmly committed to the internationally backed 'roadmap' for peace that has at its core the creation of a Palestinian state through direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
A second official said Jordan was particularly eager to get a written assurance that Bush's embrace of the Sharon plan did not mean the United States had made up its mind about so- called 'final status issues' which are reserved for those eventual direct talks.
"They want to clarify the situation and we are willing to oblige," the second official said. "We want them to help the Palestinians, but they want to know where we're coming from."
Bush's endorsement of Sharon's proposal included an acceptance of some Jewish settlements remaining in the West Bank and an implicit rejection of the long-held Arab demand for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to land now in the Jewish state that they had fled or were driven from at Israel's creation in 1948.
That move, which took the form of written statements exchanged with the Israeli leader at the White House, enraged the Arab world, particularly the Palestinians, with many leaders claiming that the United States had forfeited its role as an 'honest broker' in the peace process.
The Palestinian foreign minister cancelled a trip to Washington as a result, and an alarmed King Abdullah, uncertain about the new US stance, postponed an April 20 meeting with Mr Bush. That meeting is now tentatively set for May 6, the officials said. -AFP
