Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will ask US President George W. Bush at a White House meeting today to fulfill his vision of a viable, sovereign Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace and security.
Mr Abbas told reporters ahead of his first White House meeting as president that his vision for ending the decades-old conflict with Israel rests on the establishment of a sovereign, democratic state in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, lands Israel occupied since 1967.
He said the Palestinians were prepared to make the painful sacrifices necessary to ensure it materializes. "We are committed to negotiations as the only means to achieve this vision of a two-state solution," said Mr Abbas, who became president after Yasser Arafat died in November.
"What is needed from the United States is a clear political position on fulfilling this vision." Mr Abbas' visit to Washington is the first by a Palestinian president since Middle East peace negotiations collapsed in 2000 into violence, for which US officials often blamed Mr Arafat.
Washington, eager to embark on the long-stalled "road map," has welcomed Mr Abbas' vow to seek statehood by peaceful means as well as a cease-fire he declared with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in February and persuaded militants to respect.
Mr Abbas said he was reassured yesterday by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney that the United States was committed to the implementation of the road map and would help advance peace moves.
He said members of Congress told him yesterday they had "no objection" to channeling financial aid directly to the Palestinian Authority instead of sending it through third parties since they were satisfied with the degree of transparency and reform efforts of Mr Abbas' government.
In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journaltoday, Mr Abbas expressed concern that Mr Bush's two-state vision was being undermined by Israeli unilateral steps.
"Israel's ongoing settlement construction in the West Bank, it's insidious Wall, which, since not built on the 1967 border, is suffocating Palestinian cities and towns," Mr Abbas wrote. "It's (Israel's) illegal attempts to cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, if allowed to continue, render a two-state solution to our conflict an impossibility," he added.
For the next few months, the world's attention would focus on Israel's planned unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, he said, and pointed out that the Palestinians did not see this move as a gesture of peace.