WASHINGTON/GAZA, 23 February — US President George W. Bush intends to discuss a peace proposal by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, for ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Egypt’s President Mubarak next month, The New York Times reported yesterday.
Bush’s interest in consulting Mubarak is a clear sign of Washington’s interest in the proposal, broached publicly by Prince Abdullah in an interview to the Times’ foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman, the paper said.
Mubarak is scheduled to arrive in Washington on March 2, though an exact time for his meeting with Bush has not yet been pinned down.
Abdullah’s proposal, which he said had been prepared for delivery in late March at an Arab League summit, calls for Israel to withdraw to its pre-June 1967 borders, leaving the West Bank and Gaza for a new Palestinian state. In return, all Arab League members would formally recognize Israel’s right to exist and establish diplomatic relations.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily, Jordan has said it will urge the upcoming Arab summit in Beirut to take up the Saudi initiative.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Cabinet’s Secretary General Ahmed Abdel Rahman and other officials said yesterday Palestinians will resist Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s move to build a buffer zone because it amounts to shutting them up in a “big prison.” They said the buffer zone outlined in Sharon’s televised speech on Thursday will also fail to achieve the security Israelis seek so badly.
“He’s (already) building the Berlin Wall in Jerusalem,” Abdel Rahman said, speaking of a proposal outlined last month to envelop Jerusalem with walls, trenches, fences and guard towers. “He will make our cities and areas like a big prison. We will resist,” the official said.
In Jerusalem, a Palestinian activist was shot dead yesterday in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank after a failed blast outside a crowded supermarket wounded one person, Israeli public radio said.
In another development, the Israeli Army said yesterday it had pulled out from positions it had occupied in Palestinian territory in line with agreements reached at a joint security meeting overnight.
