CRAWFORD, Texas, 26 April — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday held crucial talks with US President George W. Bush and called for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and lifting of the siege on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The Saudi warning prompted Bush to urge Israel to withdraw from Palestinian areas and peacefully end standoffs in the West Bank towns of Ramallah and Bethlehem.
“Israel must finish its withdrawal, including resolution of standoffs in Ramallah and Bethlehem, in a nonviolent way,” Bush told reporters after he met with Prince Abdullah for nearly five hours at his Texas ranch. Palestinians, in turn, must “do more to stop terror,” he said.
Bush also said “Saudi Arabia has made it clear publicly they will not use oil as a weapon and I appreciate that and I expect that to be the case,” he said.
The Saudi crown prince, a champion of the Palestinian cause, stressed on the US president the need to arrest the deterioration of the situation and find ways for a just and comprehensive peace in the region.
Prince Abdullah urged Washington to adopt an even-handed policy while handling the Arab-Israeli conflict. “Being a sponsor of the Middle East peace process the US should address the issue in a just and fair manner taking into consideration the rights of the Arabs,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the crown prince as saying.
“Allowing the problem to spiral out of control will have grave consequences for the United States and its interests,” Adel Al-Jubeir, the crown prince’s diplomatic adviser, told reporters here.
The Saudi prince and his delegation arrived at Bush’s sprawling Texas ranch in a five-vehicle motorcade that drove through green pastures and down a tree-lined driveway to pull up at Bush’s stone-clad ranch house.
Bush, wearing a suit and a large silver belt buckle, was introduced to the crown prince, who wore a traditional gold-trimmed brown robe, by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Arab News learns that the crown prince presented a new vision for Middle East peace based on the Saudi peace initiative, the latest four Security Council resolutions and the views of President Bush expressed in his address to UN General Assembly last November.
However, the crown prince emphasized that the peace initiative depended on the Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of the siege on Arafat and a halt to Israeli settlements. Prince Abdullah, who also had a closed-door meeting with Bush, stressed that Arafat should not be harmed.
Informed sources told Arab News that the Kingdom would support UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s proposal to deploy a multinational peacekeeping force in the occupied Arab territories. The Saudi side urged the US to provide financial assistance to the Palestinians to rebuild their infrastructure destroyed by the Israeli forces. The crown prince, the SPA said, underlined the significant US role in bringing about peace and stability in the whole world, especially in the Middle East.
“The United States must support the Arab peace initiative which goes along with international resolutions,” the crown prince told Bush, adding that the US support would give the initiative a strong push thanks to the country’s political strength. The talks were attended on the Saudi side by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Saudi Ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar ibn Sultan. US Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Powell, White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and US Ambassador to Riyadh Robert Jordan also took part in the talks.
Powell, who has just completed a trip to the Middle East region which failed to achieve a cease-fire, cited one area of concern — the possibility that money raised by a recent three-day Saudi telethon could be used to encourage Palestinian bombings against Israel.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud denied the telethon was held to help bombers. “The telethon was aimed at helping the Palestinian people who are being subjected to Israeli atrocities,” he told CNN in an interview. Prince Saud said there can be no negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel until Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdraws forces from Palestinian areas and ends the siege on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
“Sharon always says that he cannot negotiate with a gun pointed at his head. Why does he expect that the other side can negotiate with a gun pointed at their heads. There has to be withdrawal, there has to be freedom of movement for President Arafat for any negotiations to take place,” he said.
He challenged Bush to press Israel to end Israel’s siege of the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah, saying the Palestinian leader “can do nothing” to stop the violence as long as he is besieged.
“Arafat whether you like him or not is the elected president of the Palestinian people. He is the man authorized to negotiate for them,” the prince said.
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick flew from Washington to Houston for meetings with the crown prince.
In his interview with CNN, Prince Saud said there was growing unease in the Kingdom and the rest of the Arab world at the UN failure to play a role for peace in the Middle East.
“The people in the Middle East could not understand how somebody rebuff a US request,” he said in reference to Israel’s perceived flouting of Bush’s call for an immediate withdrawal from Palestinian cities.
Referring to Bush’s characterization of Sharon as a “man of peace,” the prince said: “Actually I have not heard Bush describing Sharon as a man of peace but he has often said that he (Sharon) is working for peace. I don’t think that even Sharon himself would believe that he is a man of peace.”
On Iraq, Prince Saud said the recent Arab summit had taken a very important decision which has been accepted by the Iraqi government.
“The Iraqi government has committed itself not to repeat the event of 1990, to recognize the independence of Kuwait, to implement all UN resolutions related to the Gulf war and to continue negotiations with the United Nations on the return of UN arms inspectors,” he added. The prince noted that all these are in full compliance with US demands.
