Bush consults Mideast leaders on future of Road Map – USDOS press release/Non-UN document

Bush Consults Mideast Leaders on Future of Road Map

Seeks progress towards two-state solution

President Bush is working to achieve progress towards the goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through his meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Jordan's King Abdullah during the coming two weeks, according to State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher.

Bush met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at his Crawford, Texas, ranch April 12. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to meet the president in Washington April 14, and Jordan's King Abdullah plans to meet with Bush April 21.

Speaking at an April 12 State Department press briefing, Boucher said the meetings indicate the president's willingness "to listen to the various parties who have an important role in this region, people who can bring different things to the table, help out in various ways to establish the kind of Palestinian government that can take authority."

The State Department spokesman said that Israel's proposed plan to withdraw its settlements from Gaza "can represent an opportunity to move forward along the lines of the president's vision and the road map."

Following is an excerpt from the transcript of Boucher's briefing containing his remarks about U.S. views of the Middle East:

QUESTION: This meeting today with Hosny Mubarak is just one of several meetings over the last — over the next week and a half in terms of the Middle East. Can you kind of say how they all fit together in terms of what you're trying to do with getting Arabs on board for this Sharon disengagement plan?

MR. BOUCHER: I think I'd put it this way, that the meetings that we're having this week and next week involve a consistent effort by the President and by the United States to look for ways forward, for ways to move forward in the Middle East to try to achieve the President's vision of two states that can live side by side. The President has made this commitment. He has enlisted the help of others, including the Arab states in the region, to try to achieve that vision. And he has enlisted their support of the roadmap, which is the way to get there. So the President continues to work to achieve that vision that he himself enunciated.

Second of all, it represents the willingness on the part of the President to listen to various parties who have an important role in this region — people who can bring different things to the table, help out in various ways to establish the kind of Palestinian government that can take authority, that can take action against the violence in the region as well.

And third of all, it represents the President's commitment to look for every opportunity to move forward. And we've said that the statements by Prime Minister Sharon about withdrawal of settlements from Gaza can represent an opportunity to move forward along the lines of the President's vision and the roadmap, and that we would like — we are going to talk to them in that vein.

So I think you see the commitment by the President to achieving progress and the commitment by the President to look for every opportunity to move forward.