Palestinian PM rejects Bush statement on settlements after Sharon meeting

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Wednesday rejected statements made by President Bush implying that Israel would be allowed to keep some West Bank settlements in a peace agreement.

After meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, Bush said a peace agreement must take into account realities that have developed in the decades since Israel captured the West Bank. Bush said that the existence of Israeli population centers — referring to settlements — must be taken into account.

Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with the removal of all Israeli settlements.

Minutes after Bush spoke, Qureia harshly criticized his stand.

"He is the first president who has legitimized the settlements in the Palestinian territories when he said that there will be no return to the borders of 1967," he said. "We as Palestinians reject that, we cannot accept that, we reject it and we refuse it."

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat also dismissed Bush's statement. "This is like someone giving a part of Texas' land to China," he told The Associated Press. He said that over the years, U.S. administrations have assured the Palestinians that issues like borders and settlements would be handled in negotiations between the two sides.

Erekat said, "If Israel wants to make peace, it must talk to the Palestinian leadership."

Sharon said he explained to Bush his plan to withdraw unilaterally from all of the Gaza Strip, along with a much smaller pullback in the West Bank, as steps to reduce friction with the Palestinians. On Monday, before leaving for Washington, Sharon listed five main settlement blocs Israel intends to keep in a final peace deal.

Qureia said the Palestinians cannot be left out of the process. "These issues can be determined only through negotiations and cannot be determined through promises from the leader of this or that country," he said. "This can be decided only by the Palestinian leadership."

Bush endorsed Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank as "historic and courageous actions." An elated Sharon said his plan would create "a new and better reality for the state of Israel."

In what appeared to be a major shift in U.S. policy, Bush said it is now "unrealistic" to expect that Israel, in any final peace deal with the Palestinians, would make "a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949." That is significant because Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.