(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - Senior U.S. officials Elliott Abrams and David Welch, who are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sharon on Thursday, are here primarily to gauge what is going on in the PA, and why nearly two months after U.S. Gen. William Ward arrived to monitor the security situation, he is sending back pessimistic reports to Washington regarding the steps - or lack of steps - PA Chairman Abbas is taking to consolidate the PA security apparatus or to dismantle the terror organizations. In addition, they are here to urge the Palestinians to coordinate the disengagement plan with Israel, something both Sharon and Bush have said they wanted to see, but in which the Palestinians have not shown much interest. No date has yet been set for Abbas's upcoming visit to the U.S. and, according to assessments in Jerusalem, Bush is not interested in hosting Abbas until he shows some concrete results on the ground.
2005-04-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive