‘Israel to work out land return to Palestinians’

January 24, 2008

The nation of Israel must work with Palestinians to determine how much land will be ceded by the Jewish nation, according to a spokeswoman for President Bush.

The response from spokeswoman Dana Perino came to a question from Les Kinsolving, WND’s correspondent at the White House.

“Has the White House seen any action by Israel to do what we heard the president ask, to give the Palestinian Authority back all land Israel occupied after the 1967 war?” he questioned.

“That’s one of the things that – the issue of borders and security and settlements is going to be on the agenda when [Israeli] Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert and [Palestinian] President [Mahmoud] Abbas sit down to work out and negotiate all the details. So I’ll decline to comment until they work it out,” Perino said.

“So if that’s an accurate description, that the president wants them to give back all the land they occupied after 1967…,” continued Kinsolving.

“They’re going to work that out, and we’ll see what they come up with,” Perino said.

Bush recently visited the Middle East, meeting with both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and according to Middle East media reports used a loaded term, “occupation,” for Israel’s control over land that is targeted for ownership by Palestinians.

Bush has said the U.S. wants security for Israel, a “contiguous” state for Palestinians and the final borders to be negotiated to accommodate territorial changes since Israel’s formation.

He’s also insisted on considering compensation for Palestinians who lost property when Israel became a nation, but has not mentioned the Jews who likewise were displaced at that time.

Bush has called for “an end to the occupation that began in 1967,” implying a return of lands acquired by Israel. He also has appointed an assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to monitor progress on the discussions.

In a second question, Kinsolving asked: “Agency France-Presse reports that Iran has reported that Russia has delivered [another] consignment of nuclear power plant fuel, bringing to 55 tons the nuclear fuel supplied by Russia so far. And my question: Does the president believe that such deliveries actually will bring about the conclusion of Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear enrichment program?”

Without answering the question about the nuclear enrichment program, Perino responded: “The president welcomed the idea that President [Vladimir] Putin had, which is to help provide Iran with civil nuclear power so that they could have that power and have that access, but not be able to enrich. And Russia stands by us on that, as well. So the president did support that move. He does believe that all countries have a right to have civil nuclear power.”

Tehran has reported that the shipments of nuclear fuel prove its nuclear program is for power generation, not weapons development as the U.S. has claimed. The shipments were launched after a recent report from U.S. intelligence that Iran has stopped its nuclear weapons program.

Iran claims there never was such a program.

Both the United States and Russia have reported the fuel deliveries are intended to take away any reason Iran would have to continue enriching uranium, a process that can provide fuel either for a reactor or a bomb.

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