US under pressure to send observers to Middle East
Egypt-USA, Politics, 8/18/2001

The US was under increasing pressure on Thursday to intervene in the escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians by sending observers to the region.

Egyptian officials in Washington urged the Bush administration to assert its leadership by supplying US peacekeepers rather than leaving the sides to resolve the conflict on their own.

President George W. Bush interrupted his holiday on his Texas ranch on Thursday to telephone Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, in an attempt to avert further violence.

The White House said that both leaders reaffirmed their support for the plan to return to peace talks that was drawn up by the former US senator George Mitchell.

Mr. Bush's telephone call is part of an intensive effort to appear engaged in the Middle East conflict. The White House has strongly rejected the suggestion that it has been unwilling to intervene.

"I don't know where people have been in the last few months, but if they look at the record, this president and the administration is very much engaged in the Middle East," said one White House official.

President Bush has repeatedly called this week for an end to the violence, but has underlined his insistence that the initiative for peace must emerge from the region.

"The parties must - must - make up their mind that peace is preferable to war," Mr. Bush told reporters on Wednesday.

The President said that his administration was talking to both Mr. Sharon and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

He said the US was also pressing other nations in the region "to encourage them to convince Mr. Arafat to do everything he can to prevent and stop suicide bombings and needless violence".

But the verbal pressure from the White House was insufficient for Egyptian officials in Washington on Thursday.

Osama al-Baz, foreign policy adviser to President Hosni Mubarak, said: "We need a more aggressive role by the US to push the parties."

"The argument that the situation should be left to the parties has failed. They have proved themselves incapable of moving by themselves toward peace." The UN Security Council went into closed session on Thursday to consider a request by 57 Islamic nations to debate the worsening Middle East violence. The US has repeatedly blocked efforts to debate the deployment of international observers in the region, which is bitterly opposed by Israel.

The Bush administration remains highly sceptical about the use of observers, and American public opinion remains reluctant to intervene.

Previous Stories:
  The new US ambassador arrives in Cairo today   (8/17/2001)
  Egyptian FM confers with US official   (8/17/2001)
  Egyptian delegation under Baz meets Powell Friday   (8/16/2001)

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