White House Insists Sharon Talk to Arafat
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration insisted Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a negotiating partner in efforts to end the ongoing Mideast conflict.
President Bush, on the eve of White House talks with Sharon, also prodded Arafat to play a constructive role to stop violence. "He has disappointed me. He must lead. He must show the world that he believes in peace," Bush said.
Israel, meanwhile, was intensifying its campaign to link Arafat to terror attacks. An avalanche of Israeli allegations, which also focused on Saudi support for terror activity, could complicate Bush's meeting with Sharon on Tuesday.
Bush plans to urge the Israeli leader to help find ways to bolster the Palestinian security apparatus as a way of curbing terrorism so the two sides can get back to political talks, according to a senior U.S. official.
The administration also wants to see Israel moving toward a land-for-peace deal with Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the administration had not decided on a formula for peacemaking and was soliciting views of Arab and Israeli leaders "trying to determine what usefully can be achieved."
He said one approach under consideration was a series of "way stations," or interim talks, such as an international conference this summer.
At the same time, after conferring Monday with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Powell said security talks must be resumed once the standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is resolved, an agreement he hoped would be in place in a few days.
Israeli officials previously had presented documents and other material seized in raids on the West Bank and obtained from captured terrorists as evidence of what the Israelis say is a direct Arafat role in supporting and sponsoring terror.
For months, Israel has given more specific intelligence information on the Palestinian Authority and terror to the Defense Department, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. government offices.
The information establishes a Palestinian Authority connection but not "an absolute connection of Arafat to the terrorism," said another U.S. official who is familiar with the material. That official said the newest material had not been turned over yet.
Sharon also met Monday with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top aides. A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said Rumsfeld expressed sympathy for the loss of innocent Israeli lives in the recent terrorist attacks. They also discussed the broader war on terrorism, he said.
When Sharon calls at the White House on Tuesday for his fifth meeting with the president, Bush plans to urge him to engage in serious political negotiations with the Palestinians, a senior U.S. official said.
And that means Arafat, said White House spokesman Fleischer.
"We'll always deal with other people," Fleischer said. "There's not only one person to deal with, but Chairman Arafat is the representative of the Palestinian people, as they have made clear."
The president said Israel's resistance to meeting with Arafat was an expression of disappointment in his ability to lead.
"After all, right before we had a security agreement done, a shipload of ammunition showed up that can probably be aimed at the Israeli citizens. So there is a high level of disappointment," Bush said of the attempt to smuggle 50 tons of Iranian arms to Palestinians.
Powell, who met with Sharon on Monday at the Israeli's hotel, was asked if Arafat was still relevant in peacemaking.
"Well, he's still there," Powell said.
At the Israeli Embassy, officials distributed a document that included allegations that Fatah, the wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization directly under Arafat's control, had called for a million suicide bombers to march on Jerusalem.
Fatah took responsibility for a murderous attack in February in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem in which nine people were killed, including children, the report said.
At the White House meeting, Israeli and U.S. officials say an attempt will be made to define the framework for an international peace conference that Sharon proposed and Powell endorsed last week.
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A Sharon adviser said the prime minister would also put forward suggestions on ways to revamp Palestinian security, legal and administrative systems.
Sharon Accuses Saudis of Supporting Terror
On Monday officials traveling with Sharon accused Saudi Arabia of encouraging Palestinian bomb attacks against Israelis, including one that killed a U.S. citizen in 1995.
They said a committee under the auspices of the Saudi interior ministry knowingly funneled money to the families of suicide bombers, to jailed attackers and to the radical Islamic Hamas movement.
The Saudi ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, issued a statement calling the allegations "totally baseless and false, ... a smokescreen intended to distract attention away from the peace process."
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice was reviewing the documents, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
The administration, which has embraced a Saudi peace "vision," was not pleased.
"We need the Saudis right now. They need the Saudis right now. This doesn't make sense," said one senior U.S. official. However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration takes Israel at its word.
Other U.S. officials were less irritated by Israel's moves before the Bush meeting, saying the Saudis brought this type of brinkmanship to the table before meeting Bush last month in Texas.
Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, also called on Powell on Monday. Afterward he said his government could not endorse a Mideast peace conference.
"It's not a bad idea," Saud said. But he said his government needs to know more about what would transpire at the meeting.
Vice President Dick Cheney met with King Abdullah before Powell conferred with him at the State Department. The king is to meet with Bush at the White House on Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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