JORDAN: In a worsening rift between the US and its moderate Arab allies over America's endorsement of Israel's plans for the Middle East, King Abdullah II of Jordan yesterday postponed a White House meeting with President Bush scheduled for today.
The snub from King Abdullah follows Mr Bush's support last week for Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon's decision to withdraw unilaterally from all of the Gaza Strip but from only parts of the West Bank.
Arab anger has also been fuelled by Mr Bush's denial of the right of return by Palestinians to former homes in what is now the state of Israel, and his acceptance that Israel need not withdraw to the old armistice line between Israel and the West Bank. This is seen by Palestinians as essentially taking away negotiating levers in any final peace deal.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who met Mr Bush in Texas just before he endorsed the Sharon plan, warned in the French newspaper Le Monde that hatred of Americans in the Arab world had reached new depths.
"Israel has started a process of provocation" in the Middle East, Mr Mubarak said at a joint news conference in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac.
US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell sought to calm US allies yesterday by saying the Bush administration was determined to launch a Palestinian state next year, and that "all final settlement issues have to be agreed" by both sides. However, after meeting the EU's high representative for foreign and security policy, Mr Javier Solana, in the State Department, he said "the realities that exist in the area" should be taken into account in a peace agreement.
Mr Powell also met Jordan's foreign minister, Mr Marwan Muashar, who said in Arabic to reporters afterwards that Israel must return to the borders it held before the 1967 Middle East war.
Mr Muashar said diplomatically that the postponed meeting between the king and Mr Bush was not intended as a slight and the king would visit Washington to see the president in two weeks. He said the king "wanted to go back and consult with members of his government."
Palestinian Foreign Minister Mr Nabil Shaath also cancelled a trip to Washington to meet senior White House officials today.