Israel frets over Iraq report, sends FM to Washington

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Iraq Study Group Recommendations on Israel-Palestine
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AFP
by Marius Schattner 14 minutes ago

Israel's foreign minister has travelled to the United States amid worries the Jewish state's main ally could shift course after a report urged Washington to step up Middle East peacemaking efforts.

Tzipi Livni was to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other officials during her visit, which will focus on the repercussions of a report released Wednesday by the Iraq Study Group, her office said Friday.

"This trip will be an occasion to review with her counterparts the report and to discuss its meaning," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

That report said progress towards Arab-Israeli peace was key to saving Iraq.

It also called for direct US talks with two of Israel's most loathed foes, Syria and Iran, the latter of which is accused of working to develop nuclear weapons.

A day after receiving the top-level commission's report, the United States and Britain signalled the start of a renewed diplomatic push in the region.

US President George W. Bush promised "concerted efforts to advance the cause of peace" and said British Prime Minister Tony Blair would soon travel to the region for talks with Israel and the Palestinians.

The prime minister's visit was to set the stage for Rice, in early 2007, to make her eighth trip in two years to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Rice's spokesman said.

The renewed focus on peacemaking and growing domestic pressure on US leaders to end the imbroglio in Iraq has Israelis worrying about a possible policy shift by Bush.

Israel's leading newspaper, Yediot Aharonot daily, said Bush was "trying to change his policy" and slammed the Iraq report, accusing its chief authors James Baker and Lee Hamilton of ignoring Israel during its preparation.

"If the truth be told, they barely paid any attention to us," the newspaper lamented.

"For 14 years, Israel enjoyed warm and pampering attention under (former president Bill) Clinton and Bush. Now, in light of the catastrophe in Iraq, Baker and Hamilton wish to restore us to our proper proportions."

Edward Djerejian, a senior adviser to the Iraq Study Group, told the paper that were Washington to shift its tack, Israel would follow suit.

"I have much respect for (Israeli Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert. I think that if we move, he will also move," Djerejian, a former US ambassador to Syria and Israel, was quoted as saying.

Olmert, however, has expressed disatisfaction with the report's recommendations. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said US problems in Iraq were "entirely independent of the controversy between us and the Palestinians."

In statements sure to allay Israeli concerns, Bush has rebuffed some of the report's recommendations and maintained his insistence that Damascus and Tehran renounce support for extremists.

He also insists they pledge support for Baghdad's fledgling government and that Iran freeze sensitive nuclear work before any direct talks.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa have both welcomed the panel's recommendation that Bush revitalise Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts.

In Tehran, however, visiting Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya of the ruling Islamist movement Hamas showed no sign of softening his stand.

"We will never recognize the usurping Zionist regime," Haniya, on a four-day trip to the Islamic republic, said in a speech at Tehran's Muslim weekly prayers. "We will not give up our Jihadist movement."

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, thousands of Hamas loyalists demonstrated in front of the Palestinian parliament in support of Haniya, while a Palestinian rocket struck southern Israel, causing neither injuries nor damage.

It was the 18th rocket to hit Israel in violation of a fragile ceasefire which took effect 13 days ago in the Gaza Strip.

That truce agreement had rekindled international optimism about restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, dormant since the outbreak of the uprising in September 2000.