1 - 7 February 2001
Issue No.519
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 1 - 7 February 2001 Issue No.519 |
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A new departure?
The administration of newly-installed US President George W Bush has been keeping a close eye on the Red Sea resort of Taba, where the Palestinians and Israelis negotiated without US mediation, participation or sponsorship. In Washington, Dennis Ross resigned as Middle East peace coordinator. His office will be closed and the status of "specially-appointed envoy" will be done away with.
The Bush administration has not yet said how it plans to handle further rounds of Middle East peace talks, but Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated that the large number of US special envoys to be dispensed with will be replaced by career diplomats. The Bush administration has also made it clear that it will not use the same approach as that adopted by the Clinton administration regarding the nitty-gritty of Middle East peace talks. Instead, it will take into account simultaneously all other US areas of interest in the region, particularly oil and Iraq.
"We are ready to work with all the parties in the region to achieve a comprehensive solution," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Peace for Israel means peace with all of its neighbours, Syria included, where we need to build on the opportunity created by Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon." He stressed that the situation in the Middle East is a major concern to the new Bush administration. It emphasised at the same time that it would assess the Middle East in the context of its global policies, while working bilaterally with important regional countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
"These two elements are very important. We welcome the comprehensive approach while expanding bilateral relations with the countries in the area at the same time," Egypt's Ambassador to the US Nabil Fahmy told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This is a positive and far-sighted approach and it will positively impact the peace process, and at the same time strengthen bilateral ties. It all has a positive effect on the search for peace," Ambassador Fahmy added.
Arab diplomatic circles do not expect President Bush to move quickly or to devote as much attention to the Middle East as Clinton did in the last year of his presidency. At least at the beginning, he will be busy with pressing domestic issues. Bush, like Clinton before him, was elected on a very ambitious domestic ticket. Clinton didn't become personally too involved in the Middle East until the final year of his presidency. Dennis Ross virtually ran the show single-handedly for the past 12 years.
The Bush administration has said that it will be adopting a wait-and-see attitude until after the Israeli elections. But this does not necessarily mean that it will be standing by idly. Secretary of State Powell is following the talks in Taba through briefings with his ambassadors in Egypt and in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was the first from the region to contact the Bush administration. He outlined Israeli demands and red lines. The Palestinian Authority also sent a memorandum.
"Unfortunately, over the last seven years, the US has become increasingly identified with Israel's ideological assumptions -- namely security," the Palestinian memorandum stated. However, the Bush administration is not taking note of the Palestinians protests. "It all begins with making absolutely sure that Israel is secure," said Powell recently.
"The Clinton approach made the peace process a strategic point of interest," Khalil Ghassan, deputy director of the Arab American Committee against Defamation, told the Weekly. "The American mediators used the peace process as a tool to enforce the Israeli agenda on the Arab world," he said. He feels that the Bush approach will improve Arab-American relations.
Pro-Israeli think tanks in the US have published a presidential study to direct the new administration. The study called for "deterring regional wars by affirming the US alliance with Israel." Ominously, it added that "Syria's leader Bashar Al-Assad understands that emboldening Hizbullah against Israel could provoke a wider regional confrontation in which Syria would receive the brunt of Israeli retaliation."
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