White House wants Arafat to quell violence

In this story: Bush seeks visit to China Administration plans to stay cautious on North Korea RELATED STORIES, SITES

By CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior Bush administration official says Yasser Arafat needs to denounce the violence in the Middle East and get angry Palestinians "out of the streets."

Such a step could signal the new government in Israel that the Palestinians are serious about stopping the violence and that peace efforts can resume.

In a wide-ranging discussion with reporters, the senior official said Bush feels he is off to a solid and productive start in international affairs and is looking forward to meetings in the weeks ahead that would make more clear the administration's approach to major issues in Asia and the Middle East.

Bush has appealed to several Arab leaders in private telephone conversations to give new Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a chance, and has urged Sharon to be "statesmanlike" and avoid any potentially provocative actions, said the senior official, who is intimately involved in the administration's international policy.

The official said Israel deserves credit for re-opening some checkpoints between Israeli and Palestinian territories, and said the next logical step would be to resume economic cooperation that has been suspended because of the violence.

But the official said Israel understandably wants clearer evidence that Palestinian officials would take concrete steps to reduce violence, and added that Arafat "isn't setting himself up as a very good partner for the Israelis."

Sharon is due at the White House next week, and the leaders of Jordan and Egypt will visit to meet with Bush in April.

Bush seeks visit to China

Bush also is to meet with embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and China's deputy prime minister, Qian Qichen, in the days ahead, and the official said those meetings will be helpful in broadening the administration's contacts in Asia.

The official confirmed that one goal of the meeting with China's deputy prime minister is an agreement for Bush to visit Beijing in October. The president plans to attend the annual APEC economic conference in Shanghai, and is likely to make stops in other Asian nations as well, the official said.

Although Mori is widely expected to resign soon, the official said the talks will include U.S. thoughts on how Japan could do more to stimulate its economy. And the official said the administration thinks it important that Bush meet with the Japanese leader before meeting with a senior Chinese official because of the long-term alliance between Washington and Tokyo.

South Korea's president visited Bush at the White House earlier this month. Bush and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin have exchanged letters, the official said.

The official said that, at least for now, the administration is taking China at its word regarding private assurances that if Chinese companies were helping Iraq improve its air defense systems, that cooperation would be halted. Administration officials said Chinese fiber-optic technology was being installed at the Iraqi installations bombed by U.S. and British warplanes in February.

Administration plans to stay cautious on North Korea

And the official defended the administration's cautious approach to North Korea.

Bush supports South Korea's "sunshine policy," but has said the White House is not prepared for direct talks with the North Korean government until evaluating the Clinton administration approach to issues such as North Korea's missile program, to which Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials are said to want to add verification as a critical factor in any talks.

And the official forcefully disputed suggestions by some that the administration does not want to push ahead with a missile deal with the North Koreans because it wants a "bad guy" to help it make its case for the controversial U.S. missile defense program.

'We don't have to create a bad guy," the official said. "Anyone who looks knows what the North Koreans are doing around the world."

The official also said the United States would not react to North Korean "temper tantrums" by promising more U.S. aid. When North Korea said recently it planned to resume missile testing, the official said, the response relayed by the Bush administration was "go ahead" and that a resumption of testing would only reinforce the view of North Korea as uncooperative and potentially threatening.

The official also disputed suggestions Bush and his team will be less activist than the Clinton White House, but did stress the Bush administration does not see any value in being activist just to be involved. The official said that Bush believes that in most disputes, once parties begin talking it is best to leave them to direct negotiations.

Bush has spoken to about 40 world leaders since taking office, and believes slow progress is being made in making the case for some kind of missile defense.

The official said the administration has not settled itself on a specific approach to missile defense. But officials are pleased that, in their view, more and more world leaders are beginning to recognize that the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty is outdated and that "a new foundation for stability" is necessary.

One dead, 8 hurt in Middle East violence
March 16, 2001

U.S. President George W. Bush

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