Bush nudges Israel, Palestinians towards peace
US, President George W. Bush launched a U.S. drive to create a
Palestinian state on Monday, with Israelis and Palestinians nearing an
agreement to address the toughest issues of their decades-old conflict.
His legacy dominated by war in Iraq and 14 months before leaving
office Bush began three intense days of Middle East diplomacy in
separate Oval Office meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We've come together this week because we share a common goal two
democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace
and security," Bush said at a State Department dinner for participants
in Tuesday's international conference near Washington.
"Achieving this goal requires difficult compromises," he insisted.
The talks could jumpstart a long-dormant peace process, but no one
predicts a swift breakthrough in a conflict that has outlasted many a
U.S. president and Middle Eastern leader.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, putting her credibility on the
line, assembled representatives from more than 40 countries, many driven
by a desire to prevent Iran from becoming a dominant and nuclear Middle
East power.
Participants will gather on Tuesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in
Annapolis, Maryland, for a largely symbolic one-day meeting to launch
negotiations between Olmert and Abbas, both politically weakened at
home.
Bush told Olmert he looked forward to a serious dialogue with the two
leaders "to see whether or not peace is possible." Bush thanked Abbas
for "working hard to implement a vision for a Palestinian state."
"The United States cannot impose our vision but we can help
facilitate," Bush told Abbas.
Speaking later to reporters, Olmert said he expected negotiations on
Palestinian statehood to begin soon after the Annapolis conference but
gave no specific dates.
Joining the talks were Syria, a frontline state formally at war with
Israel, and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who said
Washington had made clear it would "use its full influence" to
ultimately bring about a peace agreement.
The meeting agenda includes a session on Syria's goal to regain the
Golan Heights, an plateau near Damascus occupied by Israel since 1967.
"We participate with the understanding that the Golan will be
discussed," Syrian diplomat Ahmad Salkini told Reuters as the delegation
arrived in the United States.
Despite long-standing frictions, Israeli and Palestinian officials
said they were close to agreement on a document that would outline the
peace goals to follow this week's sessions. The document will chart the
course for negotiating the toughest issues of the conflict known as
"final-status issues" Jerusalem, borders, security and Palestinian
refugees.
Abbas said during his talks with Bush: "Our hope is high that we will
come out of this conference in order to begin negotiations on the
'final-status' issues, in order to reach a peace agreement between the
Palestinians and the Israelis so that security and peace can prevail."
White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on Sunday
he expected both sides to recommit to a 2003 "road map" which provides
benchmarks that include a freeze of Jewish settlement activity in the
West Bank occupied by Israel since a 1967 war as well as a Palestinian
crackdown on militants.
In a reminder of the violence that has caused havoc in the region for
decades, two Palestinian Hamas militants were killed by Israeli troops
in separate attacks on Monday.
Abbas in June lost control of Gaza to Hamas Islamists, who were not
invited to Annapolis and have criticized it. In Jerusalem's walled Old
City, at least 15,000 Israelis opposed to this week's talks gathered at
the Western Wall to pray and protest against the Annapolis meeting.
Washington, Tuesday, Reuters
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