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| Middle East |
| No US plans to end Mideast violence received, says PA |
| 2002-10-07 |
| The question that immediately popped into my mind was, "Why don't you go ahead and get started without 'em?" A top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denied on Sunday the Palestinian side has recently received any official US plans to end the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Nabil Abu Rudeineh told reporters that the Palestinian side did not receive any US plans on the Middle East that would be carried by US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns during his coming visit. âWe heard about the plans, but we did not receive anything,â Abu Rudeineh said, adding that the only thing the Palestinians want from the United States âis to pressure Israel to implement the last UN Security Council resolution.â Stop exploding. Things will get better. He was referring to UN Resolution 1435 that calls on Israel to lift the siege on the Arafatâs headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah and withdraw from the Palestinian lands to its positions before the eruption of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation in September 2000. Don't see any corresponding requirement in there for Paleostinians to stop blowing up in crowded areas... Abu Rudeineh praised what he described âthe active international diplomatic movementâ and the international contacts with Arafat and the Palestinian leadership. âIt is a golden chance to bring the situation back on track, achieve calmness and end the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people and the Israeli military occupation,â he said. Get the ol' Oslo accords going again... Abu Rudeineh said âall these subjects would be on the agenda of the meeting between President Arafat and the European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Ramallah on Monday... The meeting is aimed at preparing a good environment and finding proper solutions based on the implementation of the related international resolutions.â Another ineffectual Eurotrip. If anything had come from the previous 704 trips, people might expect something to come from this one. With a U.S. envoy arriving, we can only expect the level of Paleostinian-originated violence to increase — probably with a new round of suicide bombings. Bush would probably save more lives by keeping Burns home. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |