US President George W Bush arrived yesterday in Egypt for a summit
with Arab leaders, launching his first personal drive for
Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Bush will urge the new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas and the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan to throw their weight behind a US-backed roadmap for peace at today's gathering, US officials said.
His summit in Sharm el-Sheikh will precede another he will hold across the Red Sea in Jordan with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, though the two feuding parties have played down the prospects for the meeting.
Bush began his first presidential visit to the Middle East after emerging from his plane, Air Force One, which had flown him from a summit of the Group of Eight industrial countries in France.
He waved to a crowd at the airport, shook hands with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and melted into a motorcade of black limousines which sped to the seaside Moorish-style villa where he was due to spend the night.
Security was tight on land, at sea and in the air around the Red Sea resort.
"I think we'll make some progress, I know we'll make some progress," Bush said amid talks earlier with French President Jacques Chirac.
Bush vowed to "achieve the vision of two states living side by side" laid out in the internationally-drafted Middle East peace roadmap. However, he conceded ending the 32-month Palestinian intifada was going to be "a difficult process".
Since becoming president in January 2001, Bush had shunned the hands-on peacemaking that tripped up his predecessor Bill Clinton, but the US-led military victory in Iraq has changed the political landscape of the region.
The toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein removed a major enemy for Israel and demonstrated US resolve to eliminate authoritarian governments in favor of more democratic ones, US officials say.
Today Bush will meet for the first time with Abbas, whom the US and Israel now support as their main Palestinian interlocutor.
Despite objections from key Arab peace mediator Egypt, the US and Israel have sidelined veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom they blame for the breakdown of the peace process and the violence that has raged since September 2000.
The Arabs blame Israel for the violence and have long accused the US of bias toward the Jewish state.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking on a separate plane that arrived here ahead of Bush, said that the summit in the Jordanian resort of Aqaba will be especially important for the reform-minded Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.
"He is going to be on the world stage as the prime minister of the Palestinian people, standing with the prime minister of Israel and with the president of the US," Powell said.
"This will be a chance for the president, Abu Mazen and Ariel Sharon to stand together and show the determination to move forward," Powell added.
A senior US official travelling with Powell said Arab leaders would together publicly back the roadmap, but Powell was less specific.
"Whether there are individual or joint statements, or how they will communicate their views, we will know soon enough," Powell told reporters on the plane that took him from Rome to Sharm el-Sheikh.
"Statements always come before actions, but we're expecting actions," he said.
"It isn't enough just to have statements and words with no action (by) the parties".
The senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he expected separate statements from Sharon and Abbas, detailing steps each side would take to implement the plan.
In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said the two sides had failed to reach an understanding on a planned joint statement to be published at the end of the summit in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba.
He said the two sides could not agree on what would have been a historic statement due to differences on the core issue of Palestinian refugees and despite intense mediation efforts by US envoy William Burns.
Burns and a senior White House aide have been in the Middle East since last week preparing for the summits and Powell said he was "encouraged by the reports" he was receiving from them.
The Palestinians refuse to waive the right of return of millions of refugees by officially recognising Israel as a Jewish state.
The roadmap calls the Palestinians to rein in militant groups and Israel to ease life for the Palestinians in the territories as part of a process to pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
The Palestinians have endorsed the roadmap, while Israel has accepted it with 14 reservations.
The other Arab leaders meeting here are Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and King Hamad of Bahrain, whose country is the current president of the Arab League. – Sapa-AFP.
Bush will urge the new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas and the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan to throw their weight behind a US-backed roadmap for peace at today's gathering, US officials said.
His summit in Sharm el-Sheikh will precede another he will hold across the Red Sea in Jordan with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, though the two feuding parties have played down the prospects for the meeting.
Bush began his first presidential visit to the Middle East after emerging from his plane, Air Force One, which had flown him from a summit of the Group of Eight industrial countries in France.
He waved to a crowd at the airport, shook hands with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and melted into a motorcade of black limousines which sped to the seaside Moorish-style villa where he was due to spend the night.
Security was tight on land, at sea and in the air around the Red Sea resort.
"I think we'll make some progress, I know we'll make some progress," Bush said amid talks earlier with French President Jacques Chirac.
Bush vowed to "achieve the vision of two states living side by side" laid out in the internationally-drafted Middle East peace roadmap. However, he conceded ending the 32-month Palestinian intifada was going to be "a difficult process".
Since becoming president in January 2001, Bush had shunned the hands-on peacemaking that tripped up his predecessor Bill Clinton, but the US-led military victory in Iraq has changed the political landscape of the region.
The toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein removed a major enemy for Israel and demonstrated US resolve to eliminate authoritarian governments in favor of more democratic ones, US officials say.
Today Bush will meet for the first time with Abbas, whom the US and Israel now support as their main Palestinian interlocutor.
Despite objections from key Arab peace mediator Egypt, the US and Israel have sidelined veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom they blame for the breakdown of the peace process and the violence that has raged since September 2000.
The Arabs blame Israel for the violence and have long accused the US of bias toward the Jewish state.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking on a separate plane that arrived here ahead of Bush, said that the summit in the Jordanian resort of Aqaba will be especially important for the reform-minded Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.
"He is going to be on the world stage as the prime minister of the Palestinian people, standing with the prime minister of Israel and with the president of the US," Powell said.
"This will be a chance for the president, Abu Mazen and Ariel Sharon to stand together and show the determination to move forward," Powell added.
A senior US official travelling with Powell said Arab leaders would together publicly back the roadmap, but Powell was less specific.
"Whether there are individual or joint statements, or how they will communicate their views, we will know soon enough," Powell told reporters on the plane that took him from Rome to Sharm el-Sheikh.
"Statements always come before actions, but we're expecting actions," he said.
"It isn't enough just to have statements and words with no action (by) the parties".
The senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he expected separate statements from Sharon and Abbas, detailing steps each side would take to implement the plan.
In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said the two sides had failed to reach an understanding on a planned joint statement to be published at the end of the summit in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba.
He said the two sides could not agree on what would have been a historic statement due to differences on the core issue of Palestinian refugees and despite intense mediation efforts by US envoy William Burns.
Burns and a senior White House aide have been in the Middle East since last week preparing for the summits and Powell said he was "encouraged by the reports" he was receiving from them.
The Palestinians refuse to waive the right of return of millions of refugees by officially recognising Israel as a Jewish state.
The roadmap calls the Palestinians to rein in militant groups and Israel to ease life for the Palestinians in the territories as part of a process to pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
The Palestinians have endorsed the roadmap, while Israel has accepted it with 14 reservations.
The other Arab leaders meeting here are Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and King Hamad of Bahrain, whose country is the current president of the Arab League. – Sapa-AFP.
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