January 24, 2009	Saturday	Muharram 26, 1430

LONDON, Jan 23: A member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family warned US President Barack Obama on Friday the Middle East peace process and US-Saudi ties were at risk unless Washington changed tack on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel had come close to “killing the prospect of peace” with its offensive in Gaza, Prince Turki al-Faisal wrote in an article published on the Financial Times website.

“Unless the new US administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the US-Saudi relationship and the stability of the region are at risk,” said Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and former ambassador to the United States and Britain.

About 1,300 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed and 5,000 wounded during the 22-day offensive, which ended with a ceasefire on Sunday.

Israel said the campaign was designed to root out Hamas militants who fired rockets into the Jewish state. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians, hit by cross-border rocket fire, were killed.

Obama, sworn in as president on Tuesday, named former Senator George Mitchell on Thursday as an envoy with the brief to try and jump-start moribund Arab-Israeli peace talks.

Former US President George W. Bush’s administration had left a “sickening legacy” in the Middle East, Turki wrote, singling out the Iraq war.

The Bush administration had also contributed to the “slaughter of innocents” in Gaza, said Turki, who currently holds no official government position in the world’s top crude oil exporter.—Reuters