Vice President Cheney said he had no immediate plans to return to the Middle East to meet with Arafat. Cheney said the United States was waiting for Arafat to begin carrying out the cease-fire proposal put forward last year by CIA Director George Tenet. Cheney, who recently came back from a Mideast tour, promised to return to the region and meet with Arafat once the Palestinian leader showed a commitment toward implementing the Tenet plan, which calls for a cease-fire, a cooling-off period and a resumption of negotiations. "If in fact Arafat will do what he in the past has said he will do, if he will actually deliver on the Tenet plan, if he'll move to put a lid on the violence and do what's required," Cheney said, "for example, sharing of intelligence information, take responsibility for securing their own areas so attacks can't be launched against the Israelis and vice versa -- if in fact those steps are actually implemented, then at that point I'll be prepared to meet with Mr. Arafat. To date, that hasn't happened, and therefore has been no meeting currently scheduled."
That's a fairly blunt public observation that Yasser's all fuss and bluster and no action toward peace. |