Saudi Proposes Mideast Action Led by the U.S.
The New York Times
April 27, 2002
By PATRICK E. TYLER
HOUSTON, April 26 - Crown
Prince Abdullah of Saudi
Arabia presented an eight-point
proposal to President Bush on
Thursday calling for an end to the
Israeli military action in the West
Bank and the opening of an
American-led peace initiative in
the Middle East supported by
international peacekeepers,
American and Saudi officials said
today.
Speaking to reporters at Mr.
Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch, the
White House spokesman, Ari
Fleischer, said the Bush
administration welcomed the
Saudi proposals as "constructive"
and said that extensive
discussions between senior White
House and Saudi officials were
under way on how to respond.
The Saudi proposal, presented
during Abdullah's meeting with
Mr. Bush on Thursday, calls for
an American-led effort to provide
aid and help with reconstruction
to Palestinians. The Saudis view a
commitment of American aid to the Palestinians as a way
of restoring trust with the Arab world and demonstrating
American commitment to a balanced peace strategy, one
that shows "solidarity" with Palestinians as well as Israelis.
The Bush administration has endorsed aid to Palestinians
and reconstruction efforts, although progress has been
stymied by violence.
The Saudi plan also calls for a renunciation of violence by
both sides, as well as an end to construction of Israeli
settlements on lands that would be part of a new
Palestinian state should Israel accept the peace initiative
offered in Beirut in March by Arab leaders. That initiative,
proposed by the Saudi crown prince, offers Arab
recognition of Israel and normalization of relations in
return for Israel's withdrawal to the borders that existed
before the 1967 war.
Officials in Washington said today that the Bush
administration did not want to appear to be acting under
pressure in responding to the proposals after Saudi
officials warned on Thursday of "grave consequences" if
the United States failed to curb the ongoing Israeli
military campaign in the Palestinian territories.
No specific time frame was set for a formal American
response to the plan, which was formulated to restart
Israeli-Palestinian talks. However, Mr. Fleischer, speaking
somewhat elliptically, said time frames "can be shortened
if trust is strengthened - and the president believes the
meeting yesterday helped strengthen that trust, and that
helps to reduce the time."
Officials close to the Saudi delegation said that Abdullah,
after delivering a sober warning to the White House on
Thursday that a "deep rift" was coming in relations
between Saudi Arabia and the United States over the
Bush administration's Middle East policy, was hoping for
an administration response before the crown prince leaves
the country on Sunday, after dining with oil industry
executives here Saturday night.
Underscoring the importance of his discussions with the
prince, President Bush turned to his father, former
President George Bush, to meet with Abdullah today. The
former president, whose leadership of the Persian Gulf
war in 1991 endeared him to many Saudis, rode by train
for about 90 minutes with the prince from Houston to
College Station. The two men then toured Mr. Bush's
presidential library at Texas A&M University. They made
no public remarks but shared a warm farewell after the
meeting.
The diplomatic struggle over Saudi Arabia's proposal, the
text of which the White House declined to make public,
appears to have motivated Mr. Bush and his senior
advisers to re-evaluate their peace strategy in the Middle
East after weeks of internal debate.
At the same time, Mr. Bush, speaking to reporters at his
Texas ranch, did not refer to the Saudi proposal when he
said that "one thing that the world can count on is that we
will not allow Israel to be crushed."
He added, however, that "it's now time" for Israeli military
forces to completely end their military campaign in the
West Bank, where intense street battles continued today.
"I told the crown prince that we've got a unique
relationship with Israel," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush, again without making reference to the Saudi
plan, said on Thursday that, "The Crown Prince is going to
be in America for several more days, and officials from
both our governments will be continuing our discussions
with the hope that our efforts can help return us to the
path of peace - a lasting peace."
Among the most difficult issues addressed by the Saudi
proposal are the future of Israeli settlements in the West
Bank and the borders of any Palestinian state. Mr.
Fleischer said the United States believes that those
questions must be "taken up as part of the political talks
between Israel and the Palestinians."
Referring to the Saudi proposals, Mr. Fleischer said:
"There's a lot of overlap between what we want to do.
Many of these things are what the president talked about
in his April 4th Rose Garden remarks as the
responsibilities of all three parties. And so we'll continue
to talk to the Saudis and continue to make progress
around those eight."
The White House did not make the plan public in the
context of Mr. Bush's five-hour meeting with the Abdullah
on Thursday. Instead, the proposals emerged today during
a briefing by Mr. Fleischer after The New York Times
obtained the details of the proposals and asked for an
administration response.
The Saudi proposals appeared to be close to ideas that
have been advocated by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell,
who has expressed an interest both in using
multinational forces to return stability to the Palestinian
territories and in organizing an international peace
conference.
One senior administration official said today, "The macro
discussions are very positive, but the micro is awful." He
also suggested that Saudi Arabia's staging the meeting
with Mr. Bush as a make-or-break encounter between
frustrated allies was intended for audiences in the Arab
world, where leaders urged Abdullah to speak for them in
demanding American action.
"The Saudis wanted this to play, `We came and expressed
Arab anger,' and that is fine with us," a senior official said.
The crown prince gave the eight-point proposal to the
president Tuesday night as part of the prepared text of his
remarks so Mr. Bush would be familiar with its contents.
Instead of responding to the proposal, the White House
sent to the Saudis a "draft" joint statement for the
meeting between the two men that made no reference to
the proposals and mischaracterized the Saudi peace
initiative adopted by the Beirut summit meeting.
The Saudis were angered by the White House joint
statement, and when they protested to Mr. Powell's office,
his staff indicated they did not have a copy of the
document. Saudi officials faxed it to them, said a person
familiar with the Saudi-American negotiations this week.
When the crown prince met with Vice President Cheney
on Wednesday, an official familiar with the discussion said
"a New York fire brigade" could not have quenched the
heat of the frustration the Saudi leader expressed in the
meeting. Mr. Cheney, early the next morning, flew to
Crawford to brief Mr. Bush on the encounter before
Abdullah arrived at the president's ranch after a
50-minute ride from the Waco airport accompanied by Mr.
Powell.
In his prepared remarks in the meeting with Mr. Bush,
the crown prince told the president that the United States
had two options. In one, it could apply the necessary
pressure to get the immediate Israeli withdrawal from all
occupied territories and end the siege of Mr. Arafat. This,
he said, would defuse the conflict immediately and pave
the way for political negotiations.
The second option, he said, was permitting Israel to
"abuse the distinctive relationship with the U.S." in
support of "extremist policies" of the Sharon government.
The consequences of this would be an intense spiral of
violence that would result in a complete collapse of
security and stability in the region.
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