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Bush unsure Palestinians will have state before 2009
 US PRESIDENT GEORGE W. Bush said Thursday that he was not sure that the Palestinians would have an independent state before he leaves office in January 2009. After talks at the White House with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Bush praised his guest and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "partners in peace" and repeated his backing for creating a Palestinian state. "I believe that two democratic states living side by side in peace is possible. I can't tell you when it's going to happen. It's happening," Bush said during a joint appearance with Abbas in the White House Rose Garden. "If it happens before I get out of office, I'll be there to witness the ceremony. And if doesn't, we will work hard to lay that foundation so that the process becomes irreversible," the US president told reporters. "I'm a heck of a lot more confident today than when I was when I first came into office," said Bush, who coupled praise for Abbas' efforts to crack down on anti-Israel violence with a call to do more against "armed gangs." "The way forward must begin by confronting the threat that armed gangs pose to a genuinely democratic Palestine" as well as "to lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians," said the US president. Posted by: Fred 2005-10-21 |
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