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Bush Disappointed With Arafat
Thursday, March 21, 2002
The Associated Press

“I am frustrated by the violence in the Middle East, and so are the people who live in the Middle East,” Bush said. “I know there are some people who do not want us to achieve any kind of peaceful settlement of a long-standing dispute, and they're willing to use terrorist means to disrupt any progress that's being made. And that frustrates me. It frustrates mothers and dads who happen to be Palestinian or Israeli because they want to raise their children in a secure environment.”

WASHINGTON -- AP
President Bush said Thursday he was disappointed with Yasser Arafat's response to calls for an end to attacks on Israel, but said Vice President Dick Cheney would meet with the Palestinian leader only if he agrees to terms to end the violence.

A decision on Cheney's return to the region depends on a judgment by U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni, who is trying to nudge Israel and the Palestinians into cease-fire.

If “Zinni signs off on it, then I'm prepared to go back almost immediately for a meeting,” Cheney said after reporting to Bush about the trip he took to the Persian Gulf and the Middle East that ended Wednesday night.

“But it will depend on whether or not Arafat is complying” with U.S. demands for an end to violence, Cheney said, sitting alongside Bush in the Oval Office.

Bush said Cheney had told him there was a chance Arafat would approve a cease-fire plan devised last year by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet. “If that were to happen, in my judgment, I think it would be best if he would then go see Mr. Arafat,” Bush said.

“We set some strong conditions and we expect Mr. Arafat to meet those conditions,” Bush went on. “I frankly have been disappointed in his performance.”
(More: The Guardian News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan