NEW YORK, April 4: The former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright on Thursday joined hosts of critics saying that the White House was not doing enough to end the violence in the Middle East. She urged her successor Secretary of State Colin Powell to immediately travel to the besieged region.
Appearing on NBC’s Today show Albright, who was at the forefront of Middle East peace negotiations during the Clinton administration, said she was loathe to criticize Powell but stressed that the United States needed to use its “full influence.”
“I do think that Secretary Powell needs to go to the region,” she said. Albright said she understood why the Bush administration might be concerned about sending Powell there following Vice-President Dick Cheney’s visit last month, which she said had not accomplished what the administration wanted. “The bottom line is that the United States is the only power that will be listened to by both sides, and I think it’s just so important for us not to be engaged just from the sidelines but really in there pushing a political track along with a military one,” Albright said.
Albright was critical of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s military tactics and said the siege of Ramallah, where Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has his headquarters, could make a “super martyr” of the Palestinian leader.
“They are making a mistake in putting Arafat in an even-more- spectacular martyr position,” Albright said.
But, Secretary Powell did not rule out meetings Middle East officials next week during a visit to Europe, but gave a lukewarm response to a multilateral peace conference proposed by the European Commission.
The United States is under growing pressure to do more to stop the escalating violence in the Middle East, where Israeli forces have launched a major military offensive in Palestinian areas following a spate of suicide bombings.
Speaking of Arafat and Sharon, Albright said: “We are watching two old stubborn men who have had a lifelong hatred of each other being played out on a scene where hundreds of people are endangered and people are dying.”
“They need to forget their personal animosity and think about the national interests of their people,” she added.
NEW YORK, April 4: The former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright on Thursday joined hosts of critics saying that the White House was not doing enough to end the violence in the Middle East. She urged her successor Secretary of State Colin Powell to immediately travel to the besieged region.
