Ari Fleischer
Lubavitchers Rule Number One
Mon May 17, 2004 10:27
4.227.59.177

Powell puts on brave face at WEF but fails to impress Arabs

US Secretary of State Colin Powell put on a brave face at the World Economic Forum (WEF) but failed to win much Arab support for Washington's Middle East policies despite issuing rare criticism of Israel.

As Powell returned home, the forum's host King Abdullah II of Jordan told US television that he was concerned.

"To feel the anger and the rage that I see in the Middle East towards the United States really sort of frustrates and worries me tremendously," the US-educated King Abdullah told ABC television.

"The perception is that the United States is not fair and balanced on the core issue in the Middle East, which is the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Then you compound that with Iraq," he said.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher warned in an interview with CNN that the US standing in the Middle East had "never been lower" and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher told panelists here that Washington was "biased" towards Israel.

But Maher also welcomed Powell's criticism of Israeli demolitions of Palestinians homes and told AFP his visit to Jordan had been positive because "he wanted to listen to the Arab views".

Maher was among a group of Arab ministers invited to a breakfast meeting with Powell by King Abdullah during which the regional officials insisted on US support for Palestinian statehood and the restoration of sovereignty in Iraq.

Powell arrived in Jordan Saturday on a last-minute decision to attend the WEF to mollify Arab leaders infuriated by US President George W. Bush's endorsement last month of a unilateral Israeli plan to pull out from Gaza and part of the West Bank.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said meanwhile he hoped the Gaza withdrawal could be completed by the turn of the year.

In a keynote address and meetings including groundbreaking talks with Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei, Powell insisted that Washington was committed to a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.

He also voiced rare criticism of Israel at a news conference with Moasher, saying: "We oppose the destruction of homes, we don't think that is productive". But he added that Israel had a "right to self-defence".

Powell urged Arabs to take strides on the road to political and economic reforms which Washington is pushing for, and called for a "forum" between the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations and Arab governments.

"We are interested in putting in place, as part of the G8 ministerial and G8 summit process, a forum for the future where on a regular basis we can get together with our friends in the region to talk about reform," he said.

But Arab and European officials stressed that reform should be homemade and linked its success to credible resolutions of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Iraq conflict.

And in a bid to fend off US pressure, Arab leaders decided to put the issue of reform high up on the agenda of a summit they will attend in Tunis on May 22-23.[http://www.rense.com/general53/quash.htm]

Before leaving Powell also had a "casual chat" with Syrian Economy Minister Ghassan Rifai, the latter told AFP, adding they did not discuss the US sanctions imposed last Tuesday on Damascus.[http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P917]

"I met briefly with the American secretary of state. We spoke but we did not discuss politics or economic issues. It was only a casual chat," Rifai said.[http://www.joevialls.co.uk/]

Sunday's WEF programme likewise focused on US and European policies in the Middle East, job creation for the region to overcome an overall 15 percent unemployment, the empowerment of women, and terrorism.[http://www.revisionisthistory.org/news.html]

Jordan signed a free trade agreement with Singapore and a protocol with Israel to seek free access to the European Union for products from their joint industrial zones.[http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040516-1333-us-prisonerabuse.html]

More than 800 delegates are attending the forum which opened Saturday with a call by King Abdullah for a world commitment to Palestinian statehood, the reconstruction of Iraq and unity against terrorism.[http://www.ety.com/HRP/jewishstudies/jstudyindex.htm]

Powell, speaking to reporters on the flight home via Shannon in Ireland, reiterated the US stand on the demolitions.[http://62.90.71.124/eng/siyur/index.html]

"It's up to the Israeli government to decide where their security lies, but we believe that the wholesale bulldozing of houses in this manner in a refugee camp which displaces hundreds and hundreds upon hundreds of people is something that we have to express our opposition to," he said.[http://www.solomonstemple.com/]

Powell also renewed US demands for Yasser Arafat to relinquish control of the Palestinian security apparatus.[http://www.israelect.com/reference/Willie-Martin/NotInJerusalem.html]

"Chairman Arafat has moral authority with his people, he is seen by his people as a leader, the carrier of their hopes and aspirations, and now he has to use that moral authority in a practical way," he said

[http://batr.org/gulag/010803.html]
 

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