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WASHINGTON, April 25: Amid lingering bitterness over European opposition to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration is under mounting pressure to relegate the European Union, the United Nations and Russia to the sidelines of the Israeli-Palestinian “roadmap” they helped craft.
A majority in the US Congress has signed onto a lobbying campaign to limit the oversight role of Washington’s three Quartet peace plan partners, seen by many of Israel’s supporters as biased in favour of the Palestinians.
It may be hard for President George W. Bush to resist the pressure from the Jewish-American lobby in the run-up to next year’s election since his main Democratic presidential rivals are already on board.
“It’s not a collective knock at the Quartet. But there is growing disdain for those other parties based on Iraq,” one senior congressional aide said.
Bush plans to unveil the plan, with its goal of creating a Palestinian state by 2005, following the confirmation of a new Palestinian cabinet.
But already 83 senators and 278 members of the House of Representatives have signed letters objecting to efforts to pressure Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to make concessions until the Palestinians do more to fight terrorism, according to the powerful pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC.
The lawmakers are also warning Bush against giving the United Nations, the EU and Russia a “meaningful role” in monitoring the peace plan, which envisions a raft of measures including a halt to Palestinian violence and an end to Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza.
“The United States has developed a level of credibility and trust with all parties in the region which no other country shares,” according to the House letter, which will be sent to Bush after he releases the plan.
“We are concerned that certain nations or groups, if given a meaningful role in monitoring progress made on the ground, might only lessen the chances of moving forward on a realistic path towards peace,” the letter added.
FULL ENGAGEMENT: Championed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush’s closest ally in the war in Iraq, the roadmap’s release could help blunt Arab and European charges that the United States was too preoccupied with the war in Iraq to make a solid commitment to the Middle East peace process.
Eager to be seen as even-handed, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer insisted on Wednesday that the roadmap envisioned “a series of actions that need to be taken by all parties.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday it would be difficult to make peace but Bush was committed to trying.
“The president has instructed me to be prepared to engage much more fully and much more directly and much more aggressively in the process of moving forward along the road map,” he told the US Asia-Pacific Council.
Soon after its release, the administration is expected to step up pressure on Israel to ease its crackdown on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.—Reuters
