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Supports new leaders { June 24 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-mideast-usa.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-mideast-usa.html
June 24, 2002
Bush Supports Palestinian State with New Leaders
By REUTERS
Filed at 4:12 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a harsh rebuke to Yasser Arafat, President Bush said on Monday the United States supported creating a provisional Palestinian state but only if there is a ''new and different Palestinian leadership.''
``Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born. I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders not compromised by terror,'' Bush said as he set out his Middle East peace policy.
In the much-awaited speech, Bush laid out his vision for a provisional state called Palestine to be set up after about an 18-month period.
But he set stern conditions, saying the Palestinians must find a new leader, create democratic institutions, and establish new security arrangements with Israel.
``When the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions, and new security arrangements with their neighbors, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state,'' Bush said in a statement delayed several times because of continuing violence in the region.
Bush never mentioned Arafat by name. But a senior aide, asked if the president meant that Arafat must go before the United States would back a provisional state, said: ``We've been very clear that we think there has been significant problems with the Palestinian leadership.''
Bush said borders and certain aspects of the sovereignty of the new state would be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement. He called on Israel to pull back to its positions before Sept. 28, 2000, basically clearing out of 40 percent of the West Bank.
The aides said if the conditions are met, a provisional Palestinian state could be established in 18 months and then made permanent in about three years as part of a final Middle East settlement.
Bush called on Israel to halt settlement activity in the occupied territories and to release frozen Palestinian revenues.
And he said once new Palestinian institutions and leaders emerge, he expected Israel to respond by working toward a final status agreement.
``With intensive effort by all, this agreement could be reached within three years from now. I and my country will actively lead toward that goal,'' he said.
Bush said Israelis and Palestinians must ultimately address the core issues that divided them if there is to be a real peace, resolving all claims and ending the conflict between them.
He said any settlement must be based on U.N. resolutions 242 and 338, and that ``we must also resolve questions concerning Jerusalem, the plight and future of Palestinian refugees, and a final peace between Israel and Lebanon, and Israel and a Syria that supports peace and fights terror.''
A senior U.S. official said Secretary of State Colin Powell was in contact with leaders in the region but was not immediately going there, as had been widely reported.
Bush did not mention the prospect of a Middle East peace conference, which U.S. officials have said they hope to hold this summer. The U.S. official said the situation was too volatile at this moment to try to arrange a conference.
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