Arafat Welcomes Bush Speech

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Arafat Welcomes Bush Speech

Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat on Monday said that the Palestinian leadership welcomed US President George W. Bush's speech on Middle East peace strategy.

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Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat on Monday said that the Palestinian leadership welcomed US President George W. Bush's speech on Middle East peace strategy.

In a statement issued after Bush speech that he addressed from the White House earlier Monday night, Arafat called for talks on implementing the blueprint, which he said is a "serious effort to end the Middle East conflict."

The statement published by the PNA state-run news agency said that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) leadership hopes thatdetails of these ideas would be discussed by the United States and other Arab, European and other world countries.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aide to Arafat, said that the most important points that the PNA is interested in is ending the Israeli military occupation and the establishment of an independentPalestinian state.

"The Palestinian leadership has already started reforms and the elections will be one time and the Palestinian people will elect their legitimate leadership," he said.

The official hoped that Bush would help ending the occupation and the Jewish settlements and work with the Arabs and the rest of the world to end the occupation and establish the Palestinian state.

However, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, secretary general of the PNA cabinet said "Bush's statements are not accepted by the Palestinian leadership, and it is a severe interference into the internal Palestinian affairs."

The Palestinian leadership is legal and elected by the Palestinian people and the Israeli occupation is responsible for terrorism, he stressed.

"We are not stones of chess, and Bush must know that Palestine is not Afghanistan. We reject any interference in our internal affairs," said Rahman.

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