February 25, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 23, 1423

MADRID: As the political cost mounts for Spain’s alliance with the United States on Iraq, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is seeking to soften his image as a war-monger by launching a new Middle East peace initiative, analysts said on Monday.

Aznar told the news agency EFE that he and U.S. President George W. Bush were preparing to “confront all the problems in the Middle East” and to take “strong and urgent action” to bring peace to the region.

“Important new issues” could be made public shortly, Aznar announced after holding talks with Bush at his Texas ranch on Saturday.

The peace initiative will be based on proposals made by the Quartet group comprising the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, Aznar revealed.

He said the peace plan would include the creation of a Palestinian state, “probably with a new leadership” — apparently excluding Yaseer Arafat — and security guarantees for Israel in line with UN resolutions.

Aznar was hoping to win Arab and French support for a war on Iraq and to counter domestic opposition at such a war, which has had a huge political cost for his government, analysts said.

Spain is one of the staunchest US allies in the Iraq conflict, and Aznar has angered Spaniards by beaming at his “friend” Bush during meetings after which he appeared to repeat US pro-war rhetoric almost word for word.

Spain is also expected to join the United States and Britain in co-sponsoring a UN resolution supporting the use of force to disarm Iraq.

Analysts say Aznar wants to catapult Spain to a European superpower, but his pro-war stance brought three million demonstrators to the streets, and the Socialist opposition has surpassed Aznar’s conservatives in opinion polls for the first time since he took power in 1996.

Aznar’s policy on Iraq also risks alienating Spain’s key European allies such as France and Germany and to erode Spain’s traditional position as a bridge between the West and the Arab world.

Since the end of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco in 1975, Spain — a country with a Moslem past and bordering North Africa — has given a high priority to relations with the Arab world.

Aznar now wants to act as an intermediary between Washington and Arab countries in the Middle East, and has reportedly phoned Arab leaders to sell them a war on Iraq in exchange for a new push for peace in the region.

Madrid and Washington believe that the fall of the Iraqi regime would improve the chances of finding a definitive solution to the Middle East conflict.

Aznar is also hoping to raise Spain’s profile by repeating its performance in hosting a Middle East peace conference in 1991 — but will his strategy work?

Bush’s pro-Israeli administration has neither the “interest nor the moral authority” to seek peace in the Middle East, and Aznar has chosen the wrong moment to pull the Middle East card out of his sleeve, the pro-government daily El Mundo warned.—dpa