Bush Says "Time to Quit," Sharon Rolls On, UN Keeps Trying Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit CNN Online - April 26, 2002 http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/04/26/mideast/index.html Bush tells Israel it's 'time to quit' CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush repeated his call Friday for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories that it entered as part of what Israel calls a campaign against terrorism. "There has been some progress, but it's now time to quit it altogether. It's time to end this," Bush told reporters at his ranch in Texas. The incursions have been widely condemned in the Arab world, and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah -- who met with Bush Thursday -- told the president that the United States must temper its support for Israel. But Bush noted Friday that the United States has a unique relationship with Israel and would not allow that nation to be "crushed." In Washington, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay planned to postpone a vote on a congressional resolution supporting Israel after the White House on Friday asked him to. "The White House has asked, and so we're going to do that," DeLay spokesman Stuart Roy said. Bush's latest demand from Israel came after Israeli forces swept through four West Bank towns Friday, and as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to delay the arrival of a U.N. fact-finding committee charged with determining whether there was a massacre at the Jenin refugee camp. Sharon labeled the accusations of atrocities at the camp -- the site of fierce fighting between Israelis and Palestinians -- "terrible blood libel." Israel says it wants clarification on the scope of the team's mission before its scheduled arrival Saturday. Palestinians demonstrate in Ramallah Meanwhile, in Ramallah -- where Israeli forces continue to surround the compound of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat -- hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators marched through the streets, denouncing Israel and waving Palestinian flags. As they approached an Israeli barricade near the compound, they threw rocks on Israeli soldiers. The Israelis responded with tear gas and fired on the crowd. Some people were carried away, but there was no immediate word on injuries. In the compound, Israeli bulldozers destroyed 50 cars that were part of the presidential motorcade, according to Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator who was there with Arafat. He said the Israelis had allowed the delivery of some food, but only a third of what the Palestinians requested. In the West Bank town of Qalqilya, the local chief of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine was killed, according to Israel Defense Forces. The operation in Qalqilya continued, but Israel forces pulled out of Beita, Silat a Daher and Jabba after incursions there. Authorities said Israelis rounded up about 40 Palestinians for questioning. There also was activity at another flash point, as the standoff between Israeli forces and Palestinians entered its fourth week at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Four Palestinian men left the church Friday and turned themselves into Israeli security forces, and two other people inside the church were seriously wounded by Israeli sniper fire, Palestinian sources said. The IDF had no comment on that claim. About 200 Palestinians are inside the church, including many civilians but also 30 wanted Palestinians. Israel contends the people inside are being held hostage, while Palestinians say the civilians fled to the church to escape the fighting outside. Negotiations were put on hold Friday between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators seeking an end to the standoff. The Palestinian delegates are demanding Israel's permission to meet Arafat at his Ramallah compound. CNN has learned from a source close to the negotiations that the Israelis will allow at least one of the delegates to meet with Arafat later Friday. * Times of India - April 26, 2002 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=8044053 Saudi tough talk makes Bush soften Palestine stand CRAWFORD, Apr 26 (Reuters) US President George W. Bush, warned by Saudi Arabia that US ties with the Arab world were at risk over Mideast violence, urged Israel on Thursday to complete a withdrawal from Palestinian areas without further bloodshed. "Israel must finish its withdrawal, including resolution of standoffs in Ramallah and Bethlehem, in a nonviolent way," Bush told reporters after nearly five hours of talks with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his Texas ranch. Palestinians, in turn, must "do more to stop terror," he said. Bush's remarks addressed the most immediate issue for many in the Arab world -- the Israeli siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah and a standoff with Palestinians inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. But they broke little new ground and evidently fell short of Saudi hopes. Abdullah had arrived with a warning that the United States risked "grave consequences" to its interests to the region if Bush did not moderate US support for Israel's crackdown on Palestinians. "If that's all the president had to say it would appear that they didn't make any progress in finding common ground," said Judith Kipper, a Mideast analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Abdullah, who has assumed day-to-day control of the Saudi government because of King Fahd's illness, is the author of a Mideast peace plan that was accepted at a recent Arab summit and that Bush welcomed as a "new portal" to peace. An increasingly influential voice in the region, Abdullah came to the meeting bearing the concerns of Arab nations outraged at the Israeli crackdown and US support for Israel. Bush said he and Abdullah had a "very cordial" meeting that confirmed a strong US-Saudi relationship, and had a "shared vision" of Israeli-Palestinian peaceful coexistence. But a senior US official confirmed Abdullah raised concerns over the direction of US-Arab relations amid the violence. Saudi Arabia, with the world's largest oil reserves, is a key US Arab ally whose support is crucial to expanding the US-led war on terrorism to countries such as Iraq. Bush also said he expected Saudi Arabia to honour assurances it would not support an Iraqi embargo on oil shipments to the United States, after energy markets roiled over speculation about a change in Saudi policy. "Saudi Arabia has made it clear ... that they will not use oil as a weapon and I appreciate that, respect that, and expect that to be the case," he said. A New York Times report on Thursday that frustration over US Mideast policy could lead Saudi Arabia to consider backing the Iraqi embargo sent prices higher on world markets. Saudi officials in Crawford dismissed the report. "Oil is not a weapon. Oil is not a tank. You cannot fire oil," Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir told reporters. A US official said Abdullah made similar assurances to Bush. The US official said lower-level discussions between the two sides would continue over the next few days. Al-Jubeir told reporters Abdullah believed US ties with the Arab world would suffer if Washington failed to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end the occupation of Palestinian areas. "If the US doesn't do more to reduce the violence, there will be grave consequences for the US and its interests," al-Jubeir said. * AFTER ISRAEL REFUSES UN INQUIRY MISSION, ANNAN TRIES AGAIN Reuters (via Yahoo) - Apr 28, 8:18 PM ET By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A frustrated Security Council gave U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan one more day on Sunday to resolve an embarrassing impasse with Israel over his fact-finding mission into the Israeli attack on the Palestinian Jenin refugee camp. Annan sought the additional day to try to overcome fresh Israeli objections to the mission's ground rules that resulted in the Israeli cabinet complaining that conditions were "not yet right" for it to proceed on Sunday, as planned. It was the third such delay sought by Israel since Annan announced the mission on April 19 after Israel welcomed it. The mission team, meanwhile, remained on hold in Geneva, awaiting a green light from headquarters. "The secretary-general's priority is to get the fact-finding mission on the ground as soon as possible," Kieran Prendergast, U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, told reporters after briefing the council behind closed doors on Annan's efforts. "The council is very frustrated with the delays but supportive of the secretary-general's efforts," he said. The West Bank camp was the scene of the fiercest fighting in Israel's West Bank offensive, which began March 29 after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. Palestinians charge a massacre took place in Jenin, with an unknown number of civilians killed. Israel denies this, saying it lost 23 soldiers while at the most 50 Palestinian fighters and civilians were killed. Envoys from Arab nations said they wanted the council to keep the heat on Israel to let the mission go forward as quickly as possible but did not want to step on Annan's toes. FOOLISH AND IMPOTENT "We expect a positive report by tomorrow" from Annan in his efforts to get the fact-finding mission on its way, Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, the current council president, said. Asked what would happen if the Israelis sought further delays or turned down the mission, he declined to speculate. But other council diplomats said Annan already had the council's approval to send the team without Israel's approval. They said that during their closed consultations, several envoys complained that Israel's actions had made both Annan and the council appear foolish and impotent. But Israeli envoy Aaron Jacob said Annan had talked twice with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday and the two were making progress on resolving their differences, although some obstacles remained. The council had been on standby in case the mission collapsed after Annan on Friday approved a delay in its departure until Sunday, from Saturday. Israel said at the time the cabinet would need until Sunday to consider approving it. Israel and the United Nations had earlier held two days of talks in New York aimed at working out their differences. During those talks, the United Nations said it was adding four military and police experts to the mission in line with Israeli wishes. But in the latest set of objections to the mission's scope, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry wrote Annan on Saturday to say Israel wanted to be sure the mission only gathered facts on what happened at Jenin and not make any "observations" on those facts, as Annan had said they might. Israel also wanted the power to decide which of its officials and documents would be made available to the mission and wanted access to all interviews and documents gathered from the Palestinians, so it could comment on them, according to the letter, dated Saturday and shown to Reuters by a third party. The Israelis have also expressed concern that information gathered by the mission might be used to prosecute soldiers or government officials on war crimes charges. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-04.28.02-22:19:42-8625