Crown Prince Abdullah Presents President Bush 

with 8-Point Mideast Peace Proposal

Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz presented U.S. President George W. Bush with an eight-point list of proposed agreements for peace in the Middle East. Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal said that the proposal, discussed with President Bush during their meeting at the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, on April 25, was intended as a comprehensive outline of how to move toward a long-term resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, by starting discussions on the basis of a peace acceptable to all parties. “It indicates all the areas . . . from [Israeli] withdrawal to reconstituting the Palestinian Authority, to start discussions on the basis of a peace all sides agree to,” Prince Saud explained.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said a senior Saudi official described the talks between President Bush and Crown Prince Abdullah as “warm, friendly and excellent in every way.” Aides on both sides spoke of a determination to work together, and the President was reported to consider the Crown Prince’s proposal as positive and constructive.

Prince Saud declared that both sides came to the meeting “with a similar vision for peace. The intention of the meeting was to see whether we could achieve a common agreement on how to get peace.” 

The eight points of the proposal are:

1. Complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank areas that have recently been occupied.
2. An end to Israel’s military siege of Ramallah, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has for four weeks been trapped in his headquarters.
3. Insertion into the region of a multinational force.
4. Reconstruction of destroyed Palestinian areas.
5. Renunciation of violence.
6. Immediate initiation of political talks.
7. An end to Israeli settlements.
8. Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 calling for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied during the 1967 war, including the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that President Bush considered the eight-point proposal as “helpful” and “constructive.” The Washington Post quoted Mr. Fleischer as saying the proposal contained “a lot of overlap” with President Bush’s own ideas, including calls for the renunciation of violence and the reconstruction of Palestinian property destroyed or damaged during Israel’s military incursion. “And so we’ll continue to talk to the Saudis and continue to make progress around those eight,” he added.

In an interview on CNN aired on April 26, Prince Saud commented that as a result of consultations with the Bush administration, the Kingdom is hoping for a return to Mideast peace negotiations with a common approach to a complicated situation. “We have,” he said, “a shared vision with the United States about two states, the Palestinian state and the Israeli state, living side by side in peace, and we are working toward that objective despite the difficulties. This is a time when anybody who can do something to ameliorate the situation must do so and do so quickly because the crisis is leading us over the precipice, and this we must avoid.” 

Prince Saud declared that the first and most important step that both sides agree upon is the need for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territories and the reconstitution of the Palestinian Authority “so that it can carry out its responsibilities in accordance with the agreements.” President Bush, he said, has spoken very forcefully in calling for such an Israeli withdrawal, but so far “Israel has summarily shunned the President’s call in spite of the fact that the United States and the President have stood by and supported Israel in every way.”

Crown Prince Abdullah’s foreign policy adviser Adel Al-Jubeir told Fox Television that Crown Prince Abdullah and President Bush share the same vision of a Palestinian state living side by side with an Israeli state. “The question is how do we get from the current situation that we’re in toward a political track, and the ideas that the Crown Prince put forward were designed to do that,” he said.