Jordan Times
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Abbas heads to
Washington
King says president's talks with Bush would `break stalemate facing peace
process' as Sharon,
in US, pledges to release 400 prisoners
Agence France-Presse
MAHMOUD ABBAS ON Tuesday embarked on his first trip to Washington as Palestinian
leader, expressing hope of achieving a diplomatic breakthrough at a summit with
US President George W. Bush.
"We need many replies to many questions and we hope that we receive positive
replies," Abbas told reporters before leaving the West Bank.
"I hope that we get political and economic benefits. When I say political, I
mean the implementation of the roadmap."
In talks with His Majesty King Abdullah during a stopover in Amman, Abbas said
"the Israelis need to clarify what comes after the withdrawal from Gaza,"
planned to start in mid-August.
Just two days before Abbas' talks with Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, who is also in Washington, pledged to release another 400 Palestinian
prisoners.
"We will make efforts to help Chairman Abbas as much as we can. When I return to
Israel we will release 400 more prisoners," Sharon told the American Israeli
Public Affairs Committee, a powerful US Jewish lobby.
The Palestinian Authority "is working towards fulfilling its obligations to
guarantee the success of the political process and prevent any measure that
could undermine it," Abbas said, quoted in a statement from the Royal Court.
King Abdullah reiterated that Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip should pave
the way for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and lead to the
establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The Monarch said he expected Abbas's talks with US President George W. Bush
would "break the stalemate facing the peace process and pave the way to relaunch
negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The important thing now is to implement the roadmap in its entirety. The
withdrawal from Gaza must pave the way for a pullout from the West Bank and lead
to a Palestinian state," he said.
But Sharon's comments were swiftly dismissed by the Palestinians as
"propaganda."
"This comment is pure propaganda because he is in the United States," Planning
Minister Ghassan Khatib told AFP.
"Sharon was supposed to release 400 prisoners under the Sharm El Sheikh
agreement but he didn't. We don't believe what Sharon says, it is what he does
on the ground that counts."
The 400 prisoners were due to have been released by Israel as part of an
agreement between Sharon and Abbas at a summit in the Egyptian resort town of
Sharm El Sheikh on February 8, at which the two leaders announced an end to
hostilities.
Israel committed to free some 900 prisoners in all but has so far released just
500 after Sharon announced in early May that further releases were on ice.
Although Bush boycotted Yasser Arafat right up to his death last November over
his alleged ties to "terror," the US president has praised Abbas' efforts since
his election in January to end violence.
They first met in June 2003 at the launch of the internationally drafted Middle
East peace roadmap which set out phased steps towards Palestinian statehood by
this year.
Since its launch, however, it has made next to no progress, prompting Sharon to
launch his own unilateral initiative to pullout from Gaza Strip this summer.
The Palestinians believe the Gaza pullout is an Israeli ploy to bypass the
roadmap and thwart a more comprehensive withdrawal from the West Bank, hence
Abbas' determination for Bush to reiterate his support for the plan.
"Under the pretext of ... the withdrawal from Gaza, Israel has been unilaterally
constructing its wall, confiscating more land and building more settlements,"
deputy prime minister, Nabil Shaath, said Tuesday.
"The international community and the US administration has been paralysed, and
every time we try to speak to somebody, they tell us to keep quiet because this
might jeopardise Sharon's plan."
Sharon himself met Bush last month and tried to convince the US leader that
Abbas was failing to rein in the factions.
Although Sharon is also currently in Washington, he is not due to meet any US
officials.
However, two of his top advisors have held high-level talks in a bid to hammer
home the message to the US administration that Abbas has not done "a single
substantive thing ... to reduce terror and therefore deserves nothing."
According to an editorial in the Yediot Aharonot daily, Sharon was also clearly
trying to "spoil the party" for Abbas.
Although Abbas has resisted Israeli demands to launch a crackdown on the
factions, he has persuaded the main groups to freeze their attacks since
January.
The truce has largely held since his election but a bout of mortar attacks on
Jewish settlements in Gaza earlier this month raised fears it was in jeopardy.
Egyptian officials, who helped broker the original agreement, met Tuesday in
Gaza with factions and during the evening, kicked off talks with Hamas in a bid
to shore up the truce.