Word: yasser
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...York on Tuesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell met fellow diplomats from the "Quartet," which coordinates Western mediation efforts into the conflict, to discuss ways of reviving the peace process within the limits recently set out by President Bush. The President's specific demand that Yasser Arafat be ousted as a precondition for diplomatic progress highlighted the differences between Washington and its allies on how to proceed. The Russians and Europeans insisted they would continue to work with Arafat as long as he remains the elected leader of the Palestinians, and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan echoed the sentiment...
Does President Bush have a follow-up plan for actually removing Yasser Arafat from power? Apparently not. In his Middle East speech last week, the President urged the Palestinians to replace their current leaders (read Arafat) with ones "not compromised by terror." Once that occurs, he said, the U.S. will recognize a Palestinian state and pressure Israel to do likewise. But some Administration officials admit there's no blueprint for moving Arafat along. Concedes a White House aide: "Some of these tactical aspects we are still working...
...allies in the Arab world have spent most of this year pressing President Bush to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and most have been quietly exasperated by the new policy he announced last week that made Yasser Arafat's ouster a precondition for progress. Continuing conflict in the West Bank and Gaza puts their alliance with the U.S. under domestic political strain, and there's considerable fear in Arab capitals that this tension will be exacerbated if - or more likely when - the U.S. ignores their reservations and invades Iraq. The Bush administration appears to be calculating that decisive action...
...More significant is Bush's call for a new Palestinian leadership. Let's stipulate that Yasser Arafat has been disastrous for the Palestinians. Why should anyone think Bush's speech makes it more likely they will now dump him? Since the time of Caesar Augustus, imperial powers have tried to find local chiefs they can do business with. It never works; just because you sign a treaty with Red Cloud, it doesn't mean Sitting Bull stays on the reservation. National-liberation movements (and Palestinians believe they are engaged in one) are quite happy, thank you very much, to choose...
...Noted "Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership so that a Palestinian state can be born." GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. President, in a speech that tied removal of Yasser Arafat to U.S. support for a Palestinian state...