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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (229451)	2/21/2002 11:38:08 AM
From: gao seng	Respond to of 769670

U.S.-Saudi contacts to end Arafat siege Jump to first matched term Date: Thursday, February 21, 2002 9:51:16 AM EST RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, has been instructed to contact the Bush administration to help end the siege imposed by Israel on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, according to Thursday's editions of the Saudi al-Watan newspaper. Al Watan quoted Saudi sources as saying contacts were underway with senior U.S. officials in charge of Middle East affairs. The ambassador reportedly was acting on instructions from Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. The talks also aimed at exploring ways for implementing cease-fire recommendations made by former Sen. George Mitchell and the CIA head George Tenet to halt the 17-month-old intifada. The newspaper said Abdullah consulted with a number of Arab leaders before launching the initiative. Abdullah stunned the Arab world when he told The New York Times last week he had planned to offer Israel full normalization of relations with Arab countries in exchange for total Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem. Abdullah said he planned to submit the proposal at the Arab summit scheduled for March 27-28 in Beirut but changed his mind later due to intensified Israeli violence against the Palestinians, the U.S. newspaper reported. Al Watan quoted Arab diplomats in Riyadh as saying the crown prince's declaration was meant to convey a message to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to the Israeli people that Sharon's policy of "using excessive force against the Palestinians" will not lead to peace. Arafat has been held under virtual house arrest in his Ramallah residence in the West Bank for two months. Israel instituted the blockade after demanding the Palestinians arrest three men the Israelis say are responsible for killing a Cabinet member last October. Those men were arrested by Palestinian security forces Thursday. newsalert.com