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Senior administration officials said Friday that implicit in President George W. Bush's proposal to create a free trade zone in the Middle East is that participating Arab countries would drop their economic boycott of Israel, CNN reported.
Earlier Friday, President Bush promoted the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by dangling an attractive economic prize: the removal of U.S. trade barriers for countries in the Middle East within the next decade.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, due to arrive in Israel on Saturday evening, is expected to push both Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his newly-appointed Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to declare their unambiguous acceptance of the latest plan for Middle East peace.
In a commencement speech to 1,200 graduates at the University of South Carolina, the president said economic prosperity is critical to a lasting peace accord and that unrestricted U.S. trade with the Middle East could help the region prosper.
Stopping in Columbia, South Carolina, Bush said hatred must be replaced by new hope in the Middle East. And he pledged to work to get the parties to sign an accord.
By replacing corruption "with free markets and fair laws, the people of the Middle East will grow in prosperity and freedom," Bush said.
The combined gross national product of all Arab countries is smaller than that of Spain, the president said. The Arab world is missing out on the economic growth that other areas of the world have enjoyed.
"I propose the establishment of a Middle East free trade area" within 10 years, Bush said.
The United States also has such pacts with Canada and Mexico and, as of Wednesday, with Singapore.
He suggested that the United States would bring countries across the region into such a pact on a country-by-country basis, and said he had a vision of "two states, Israel and Palestine, side by side in prosperity and peace."
Senior official: Offer is open to any country that makes needed reforms
A senior Bush administration official said that the offer was open to any country in the region that is willing to make the necessary economic reforms.
The official, speaking on condition that he not be named, also said Middle East countries first must obtain membership in the World Trade Organization before the United States will consider talks on a bilateral free trade agreement.
In a conference call with reporters, a senior administration official said the initiative could be extended to Iran, Syria and Libya, which are currently subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
"Not all countries are ready today to participate in this kind of engagement. Our hope is obviously the whole region will eventually be not only ready, but ... able to achieve this kind of objective," he said.
Powell: U.S. wants to avoid 'endless' negotiations on road map
Powell will make his second Middle East trip in recent days as part of U.S. efforts to promote the internationally-brokered road map to Middle East peace that was unveiled last week in an effort to end the 31 months of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Hours before his scheduled flight to Israel, Powell said Friday that the U.S. wants to avoid a long period of negotiations on the road map, but is willing to listen to feedback on the plan from Palestinians and Israelis.
The United States, however, does not want the process to fall into "another endless loop of discussions and negotiations".
"We have laid it down and we realize that both sides have comments on it," Powell said during a press conference with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. "We're prepared to look at the comments."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Thursday that when Powell visits the region this weekend, President Bush hoped the parties will show a willingness to "take the first steps down the road" laid out in the plan.
Bush optimistic about peace prospects
Bush was hopeful Thursday about peace prospects in the Middle East, attributing his optimism to Abu Mazen's appointment.
"Of course we're going to make progress. Yes, we'll make progress, absolutely," Bush told reporters as he met the emir of Qatar in the Oval Office.
But he said a concerted effort was needed to stop the violence so that the peace process could proceed.
The reason for his optimism, he said, was the fact that Abu Mazen had renounced violence and was committed to reforms.
But Abu Mazen says the plan will go nowhere unless the U.S., its main architect, presses Israel to embrace the plan without delay.
Senior Palestinian officials have already voiced dismay at what they see as Washington's hesitancy in the face of Israeli objections to the road map, which calls for reciprocal measures leading to the founding of a Palestinian state by 2005.
"We were told by the Americans they are determined to see the road map implemented. Therefore it is their duty to see to it that Israel accepts it and implements it," Abu Mazen told Reuters before Powell's visit.
Abu Mazen took the new office of premier last month in a move demanded by Washington, which wants to circumvent Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in efforts to end 31 months of bloodshed.
Palestinians say the Bush administration told them that the road map - drafted last year by the "Quartet" of Washington, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia but held up by the war in Iraq - was a framework binding on both sides.
"It is unacceptable for the Israelis now, after the road map was officially presented by the Quartet, to say they have reservations. The Israelis must accept it so it can be swiftly implemented," Abu Mazen said in the West Bank city of Ramallah in his first interview with international media as prime minister.
He said the Palestinians also had concerns about the plan but had decided to accept it as it is to avoid negotiations that would delay implementation and an easing of Israeli military crackdowns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinians rose up in September 2000 for an independent state.
Israel objects to the plan's reciprocal formula for steps by each side and to any timetable for a state. It wants the Palestinians to disarm and jail militants, with an extended period of calm, before it pulls back forces or starts to dismantle settlement outposts on occupied territory.
Palestinian officials say they cannot stifle what has been a popular "resistance" while IDF troops still occupy towns.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns met Palestinian and Israeli leaders in the region this week ahead of Powell's expected arrival on Saturday.
A senior Palestinian official said Burns had left the impression that Washington was not willing to lean on its ally Israel to accept the road map without amendments.
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