2005-2-4
This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English.
American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with
Israeli and Palestinian leaders before those leaders hold talks next
week. Her trip is part of the Middle East peace efforts that
President Bush discussed this week in his State of the Union speech.
Miz Rice is to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in
Jerusalem on Sunday. She visits Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Monday.
Then, on Tuesday, Mister Abbas and Mister Sharon are to meet in
Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. It will be the first time Israeli and
Palestinian leaders have met in more than four years. Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak is holding the talks. King Abdullah of
Jordan also is expected to take part.
President Bush announced that he will ask Congress for three
hundred fifty million dollars for the Palestinians. He said the
money would go for political, security and other reforms. In his
words: "The goal of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine,
living side by side in peace is within reach – and America will help
them achieve that goal."
In his speech Wednesday night in Congress, Mister Bush also
called for greater freedoms in other parts of the Middle East. He
said reform is already taking hold from Morocco to Jordan to
Bahrain.
He called on Saudi Arabia to give its people more power to decide
their future. And he spoke of Egypt, another American ally, which he
called "a great and proud nation." He said, "Egypt, which showed the
way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward
democracy in the Middle East."
In much stronger language, Mister Bush said that Syria still
permits its territory and parts of Lebanon to be used by terrorists.
And he said Iran remains the world's main state supporter of
terrorism. He said Iran is seeking nuclear weapons while denying its
people freedom. The president had a message for Iranians. "As you
stand for your own liberty," he said, "American stands with you."
In London Friday, reporters asked Secretary Rice if the United
States might ever attack Iran. In her words: "The question is simply
not on the agenda at this point." She said diplomatic steps remain.
Miz Rice is on her first trip as top American diplomat. London was
the first stop among European capitals.
In his State of the Union speech, the president praised the Iraqi
people for voting in elections. He said terrorists are trying to
destroy the hope that Iraqis expressed. Millions of people voted
Sunday for a new Transitional National Assembly.
Leaders of the opposition Democrats in Congress criticized Mister
Bush for not saying when American troops will leave Iraq.
The president introduced an Iraqi human rights activist whose
father was killed by the Saddam Hussein government. Safia Taleb
al-Souhail shared an emotional hug with another guest, Janet
Norwood, the mother of a United States Marine killed in battle in
Iraq.
In the News in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson.
I'm Steve Ember.