P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 11 May 2004 — Saudi Arabia yesterday blasted US President George W. Bush for questioning an internationally agreed target date for Palestinian statehood, saying it would lead to further delay of the Middle East peace road map.

“Such statements serve the demands and practices of Israel, which has been trying to break the principles of the peace process since its outset,” the Council of Ministers said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

Bush said on Saturday that the establishment of a Palestinian state might be delayed past the 2005 deadline as the internationally backed road map was no longer realistic. “I readily concede the date has slipped some. ... I think the timetable of 2005 is not as realistic as it was two years ago,” he told Egypt’s Al-Ahram daily.

These statements, the Cabinet said, also come under “unilateral decisions that hamper the credibility of the United Nations and its resolutions.”

The road map, an internationally devised peace plan drawn by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, specifies that an independent Palestinian state would be established by 2005.

The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, also called for international efforts to confront “dangerous developments” in both Palestine and Iraq.

The meeting welcomed the GCC counterterrorism agreement, which was signed last week by the interior ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The pact reaffirms the GCC’s support for regional and international efforts to fight terrorism, the statement said.

The Cabinet meeting approved new regulations to arrange housing for the families of military officers killed or missing in action, and wounded military personnel and civilians during wars or other security operations.

“The families of officers killed while engaging in security or other operations and military exercises, and of civilians assigned to carry out similar operations” will be entitled to the facility, said the statement. It specified beneficiaries as the wife, children and legal dependents.

The families will be allowed to stay at housing facilities in military cities or in public housing facilities for no more than five years until the state arranges suitable housing for them. Those who live in private homes will be given a one-off lump sum payment of SR125,000. If they leave their houses in the military sectors before completing the five-year grace period, they will be given SR25,000 for each remaining year.

The families are also entitled to a plot of land in a residential district and will get preferential loans from the Real Estate Development Fund.

The Cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding reached by the Civil Defense Department and the United Nations Development Program and authorized the interior minister to sign the pact.

Culture and Information Minister Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy said the meeting also approved proposals by the minister of economy and planning to develop the services being provided by the Kingdom’s seaports and facilitate their procedures.