Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who headed the commission
that developed the peace plan: "There's a risk that someone from Hamas or
Islamic Jihad could succeed Arafat, which would make it much, much worse."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan: "President Arafat was chosen freely by the
Palestinian people in elections that were widely welcomed by the
international community in 1996. He remains their leader and it will be up
to them to decide through fresh elections already announced who will lead
them in the future."
Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian legislator: "Bush adopted the Israeli approach by
putting preconditions on any type of movement in the peace process, and the
preconditions are on the Palestinians only. Bush is presenting a vision
without giving us a road map. Instead of taking up the Arab initiative and
running with it, he didn't allude to it even obliquely. He based his
position on the simplistic polarisation, either you are with us or you are
against us. He didn't launch any effective process. He bought more time for
Sharon and gave him the green light to continue with these very dangerous
policies."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: "The Palestinian Authority has supported
this statement. If it has agreed upon it, then we support it, because it is
balanced to a great extent... I do not see in this speech the removal of
Arafat, but a demand for reforms of the Palestinian Authority and the
formation of a new administration."
The Jordanian government: "We urge Israel to live up to this moment in
history. Delay is a recipe for disaster."
Yossi Beilin, former Israeli justice minister and an architect of the 1993
Oslo peace accords: "The worst thing we can do is just to say we got a
kosher stamp from the US President to do nothing. To do nothing means the
continuation of the vicious circle of violence. Since there is no reference
to an international conference, Bush is telling the parties to go on
bleeding for now, then eventually we'll have two states."
