Bush promises new ideas as Mubarak talks begin
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Your support makes all the difference.President George Bush signalled yesterday that he will sketch out new ideas on trying to unlock the struggle for land and peace in the Middle East to the American public after a new round of talks with leaders from the region in the coming days.
Mr Bush was due to start the diplomacy effort last night at Camp David in a meeting with the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak. He will hold further talks with the Israeli Prime Minster, Ariel Sharon, at the White House on Monday.
Mr Mubarak, who flew to the United States after meeting Tony Blair in London, is expected to press Mr Bush to deepen his involvement in ending the violence between Israel and the Palestinians. The Egyptian leader, who will have a second round of talks with Mr Bush this morning, is expected to push his proposals for all nations to declare the theoretical creation of a Palestinian state early next year, and then to agree on the details of its borders.
Before the meeting, Mr Bush said: "I'll talk to our country about how I think we should go forward," but gave no indication what his own view was likely to be. "Progress is being made. The Arab world now understands the need to be involved in pushing for peace, and fighting against the terrorist actions that make it very difficult to achieve peace".
The meetings follow a violent week in the Middle East, where a Palestinian suicide attack on Wednesday, in which 18 died, was swiftly followed by an another destructive Israeli incursion into Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah.
With his proposals, President Mubarak seems to be competing with an earlier, less detailed plan put forward by Saudi Arabia. That offered normal diplomatic relations between the Arab world and Israel on condition it withdrew to its pre-1967 borders.
Pressure has been mounting on Mr Bush to take some new initiative, after several months in which Washington has balked from taking decisive steps in any direction while seemingly tolerating Israel's invasions of Gaza and the West Bank. It remains unclear how much backing the Americans will give to Mr Mubarak while they remain distracted by their related desire for the Middle East to be calm enough for the US to pursue its ambition of toppling Saddam Hussein next year.
Dennis Ross, who was President Bill Clinton's envoy in the region, said: "Obviously, they want to affect the situation. But they still haven't made it clear whether they just want to defuse it to get to Iraq or whether they're prepared to invest the effort, not to solve the issue, because you can't right now, but to transform it."
Washington continues to waver, meanwhile, on the future of Mr Arafat. Last week, officials in one breath excoriated him for failing to restrain suicide bombers but also appealed to Israel to resist the temptation to attack him personally or to drive him into exile.
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