History > 2008 > USA > International (II)

Bush Seeks

to Boost Trans - Atlantic Ties

March 31, 2008
Filed at 3:13 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is promoting NATO expansion and trying to shore up ties with allies as he heads to Europe for a week. But many world leaders have begun looking beyond him as his second White House term winds down.

Bush was departing Monday for Eastern Europe, starting with a brief stop in Ukraine to tout that country's democratic reforms.

The president then goes to Romania for his last summit with NATO leaders, where the alliance's membership and the war in Afghanistan will be key topics.

Bush is also scheduled to visit Croatia and head to Russia for what will likely be his final meeting with Vladimir Putin as Russian president. Bush hopes to break a logjam between the two nations over a proposed U.S. missile defense system; Putin's successor takes over in May.

The agenda is part of the busiest travel year in Bush's presidency. He went to the Middle East in January and to Africa in February. After his current trip, Bush has five more major excursions on the books -- from Europe to Asia, the Middle East to South America.

Bush remains relevant to the end of his term as commander in chief. But some world leaders have begun to calculate how far they should commit to a president whose days are numbered and whose legacy had been tarnished by the war in Iraq. The 2008 U.S. presidential race is grabbing attention overseas.

At NATO, Bush is seeking to expand the alliance to include three Balkan countries -- Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. He also wants Ukraine and Georgia to be on track for membership, but that idea faces stiff resistance from Putin, who sees it as a threat into Russia's former sphere of influence.

But Bush sees NATO expansion as a way to cement democratic gains in Europe.

The United States and its NATO allies remain broadly united about Afghanistan, but there has been trans-Atlantic bickering on how to proceed, too.

The U.S has criticized Germany and other European allies that have refused to allow their troops in Afghanistan to be deployed to the southern front lines of the Taliban insurgency alongside U.S., British, Canadian, Dutch and other contingents. European leaders have expressed skepticism about the Afghanistan mission on the ground and that NATO has the capabilities it needs to succeed.

Bush Seeks to Boost Trans - Atlantic Ties, NYT, 31.3.2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush.html

Editorial

Belatedly Making Nice

March 31, 2008
The New York Times

George Bush and Vladimir Putin, after months of acrimony and years of inaction, are suddenly ready to talk seriously about serious matters. We hope it is not too late, since both are nearly at the end of their presidencies. There are certainly a lot of things they need to address.

For one, nuclear weapons. Since they agreed on the 2002 Moscow Treaty — which will bring both sides down to between 1,700 and 2,200 fielded weapons — there have been no talks about any deeper cuts or reductions in the thousands of weapons they keep as back up.

For another, Mr. Putin’s authoritarian and bullying ways — at home and abroad. Mr. Bush has limited leverage, but his limitless passion for an unproven missile defense system has made it easier for the Russian leader to deflect criticism.

And then there is Iran. While the two presidents have spent months trading barbs, Tehran has been defying the Security Council and mastering the skills it needs to make its own nuclear weapon.

The idea for a new “strategic framework” is Mr. Bush’s. He is clearly looking for a better foreign policy legacy than just the disastrous Iraq war. He has twice sent his secretaries of state and defense to Moscow to sell the idea, and will travel to the Black Sea resort of Sochi this weekend to discuss it with Mr. Putin.

Mr. Bush is especially eager to expand his grandiose vision for missile defense, including a European-based system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The technology isn’t close to being ready and will pose no threat to Russia’s huge arsenal. But that hasn’t stopped Moscow from objecting and using it as an excuse for anti-American bluster and its serial misbehavior.

Belatedly, Mr. Bush has offered concessions, like allowing Moscow to monitor the system and agreeing not to activate it until there is a verifiable threat from Iran or some other hostile state. The Russians still haven’t dropped their opposition. If Mr. Bush wants a deal now, he will have to give more, such as agreeing not to deploy interceptors until a threat is verified.

Mr. Bush has finally agreed to extend or replace Start I, which expires in 2009. What matters is that this treaty sets the rules for verifying each side’s compliance with arms control commitments (and not incidentally also gives American monitors information on whether the Russians are doing what they should to secure their weapons). Mr. Bush’s contempt for treaties was so great that he apparently was willing to give that up.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bush is not proposing deeper cuts in nuclear weapons. In a post-cold-war world it is impossible to justify the need for thousands of weapons. And Mr. Bush’s stubborn refusal gives far too many countries a further excuse to ignore Iran’s misbehavior and to justify their own nuclear appetites.

Mr. Bush should be commended for trying to put the relationship with Russia on a better track. But he waited too long to make the effort and remains too wedded to cold-war fears to chart a truly new course. The next American president will have to do a lot better.

    Belatedly Making Nice, NYT, 31.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/opinion/31mon1.html

Rice Wins Concessions From Israel

March 30, 2008
Filed at 10:14 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel and the Palestinians agreed Sunday to a series of ''concrete steps'' aimed at paving the way for a final peace agreement later this year, beginning with Israel's pledge to remove some West Bank roadblocks.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting the region for the second time this month in hopes of energize faltering talks, said the moves ''constitute a very good start to improving'' a Palestinian economy crippled by the Israeli restrictions.

Under the plan that Rice announced, Israel will remove about 50 roadblocks, upgrade checkpoints to speed up the movement of Palestinians through the West Bank and give Palestinians more security responsibility in the town of Jenin with an eye toward looking at ''other areas in turn.''

The Israelis also pledged to increase the number of travel and work permits it gives Palestinians and to support economic projects in Palestinian towns.

In return, the Palestinians promised to improve policing of Jenin ''to provide law and order, and work to prevent terror,'' according to a State Department statement released shortly before Rice spoke.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad consented to the steps at a joint meeting with Rice earlier Sunday. They agreed to pursue the measures with ''special, immediate emphasis and work,'' the statement said.

''We've been told that this is going to start and, hopefully even be completed in a relatively short period of time,'' Rice told reporters. ''I am expecting it to happen very, very soon.''

''We will be monitoring and verifying,'' she added.

The agreement includes:

--removing 50 travel barriers in and around Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Ramallah.

--dismantling of one permanent roadblock.

--deploying 700 Jordanian-trained Palestinian police in Jenin and allowing them to take delivery of armored vehicles.

--raising the the number of Palestinian businessmen allowed into Israel to 1,500 from 1,000.

--increasing the number of work permits for Palestinian laborers by 5,000 from its current number of 18,500.

--building new housing for Palestinians in 25 villages.

--connecting Palestinian villages to the Israeli power grid.

--Israeli support for large-scale economic development programs and encouragement of foreign investment.

Neither Barak nor Fayyad commented on the developments when they appeared at a brief photo opportunity with Rice after their meeting.

One Palestinian official said he welcomed any improvement, but that Israel's moves were ''too little, too late.''

''We want Israel to move quickly in removing these obstacles that make no sense and make the lives of the Palestinians difficult,'' said Samir Abdullah, the Palestinian planning minister.

Israel maintains hundreds of checkpoints, roadblocks and other travel restrictions in the West Bank, and says they are needed to stop suicide bombers. The Palestinians say the restrictions are excessive and have stifled their economy. They have made removal of the checkpoints a priority as the two sides, with U.S. backing, try to negotiate a peace agreement by year's end.

Rice had said she was looking for ''meaningful'' steps to put in place the stalled U.S.-supported plan that envisions the creation of an independent Palestinian state through concessions on both sides.

''There has not been enough momentum,'' she said. ''This is a start in terms of delivering on some of those obligations.''

    Rice Wins Concessions From Israel, NYT, 30.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-US-Mideast.html

Bush, Australian Premier Hit It Off

March 28, 2008
Filed at 12:43 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush and visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called jointly Friday for China's leaders to meet with the Dalai Lama over violent unrest in Tibet.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference after talks at the White House, they called for Beijing to use restraint in dealing with Tibetans protesting Chinese rule. ''It is absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet,'' said Rudd, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat in Beijing. ''It's clear-cut; we need to be upfront and absolutely straight about what's going on.''

Bush said he told Chinese President Hu Jintao this week that ''it's in his country's interest'' that top Chinese leaders meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

''We urge restraint,'' Bush said, adding that he appreciated Rudd's ''view and advice on dealing with this issue.''

The leaders were trying to strike a delicate balance on China, voicing displeasure with Beijing's crackdown without alienating a crucial economic and political partner.

Rudd, who wants stronger economic ties with Beijing, said leaders should not ''shilly-shally'' in their assessment of abuse by China in Tibet and surrounding regions. He said he would raise the matter during his visit to China next month.

Both Rudd and Bush recognize that they need China, a growing military and economic powerhouse in Asia and a veto-holding member of the U.N. Security Council. Rudd is eager to conclude a free trade agreement with Australia's most important trading partner, while Bush is counting on China for help in dealing with North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs.

Rudd is seen in Washington as a ''solidly pro-U.S. alliance figure,'' said Michael Green, Bush's former senior adviser on Asia.

''The one area where people have raised eyebrows about Rudd is on China policy,'' said Green, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. ''When he's here, he's going to want to make it clear that the U.S. alliance remains the bedrock and Australia is not going wobbly on China.''

Rudd has said disagreement over Tibet would not stand in the way of Australia's economic relations with China, which has shown a strong demand for Australia's natural resources. Rudd says he will urge Chinese officials to step up their negotiating efforts on a free trade agreement.

The Tibet protests, led by monks, began peacefully March 10, on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops entered in 1950. Beijing says 22 people have died in this month's protests; Tibetan exiles say almost 140 are dead.

Bush also praised Australia's efforts in Afghanistan, and said he understood Rudd's decision to withdraw 550 combat troops from Iraq. Australia says hundreds of others will stay in Iraq in supporting roles.

Bush said that close U.S.-Australian ties will continue under new Rudd's leadership. Rudd said Australia intends to be in Afghanistan for ''the long haul.''

Australian officials have been keen to note that the Iraq withdrawal will not hurt the relationship with the United States, which they have called indispensable to Australian security.

Still, Rudd has distanced his government from the pro-U.S. policies of his immediate predecessor, John Howard, who celebrated his close friendship with Bush. Rudd's first official act as leader was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol global warming pact, leaving Washington isolated as a holdout among developed nations.

Rudd has said he hopes Washington would follow his lead and sign the pact. Bush has said the accord would harm the U.S. economy.

    Bush, Australian Premier Hit It Off, NYT, 28.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Australia.html

Cheney Talks With Palestinians

March 23, 2008
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:45 a.m. ET
The New York Times

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Palestinian leaders, frustrated by the molasses speed of peace talks and Israeli settlement activity, have low expectations for their meetings Sunday with Vice President Dick Cheney, a strong defender of Israel.

After holding talks with Israeli officials in Jerusalem, Cheney flew by helicopter to the West Bank to speak with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. He was greeted by Abbas on a red carpet leading to the meeting site.

Aides to Abbas said the Palestinian president would tell Cheney that there's been little progress in the peace talks since he and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to restart them at the Mideast peace conference President Bush hosted in November in Annapolis.

''We expect the American administration to be an honest broker in the peace process,'' said Nimer Hamad, a political adviser to Abbas. ''Without strong American intervention and pressure on Israel, there will be no progress in the peace talks. If Israel continues settlement expansion and incursions, there will be no chance for an agreement in 2008, as the U.S. wanted.''

Cheney began Easter Sunday with a prayer and the singing of ''Amazing Grace'' at a tiny chapel in Jerusalem, then launched into a day of talks about conflict: the Mideast peace process and the rising influence of Iran in the region.

''We are obviously dedicated to doing all we can as an administration to try to move the peace process forward, and obviously actively involved in dealing with the threats that we see emerging in the region -- not only threats to Israel, but threats to the United States as well,'' Cheney said in a meeting with President Shimon Peres.

It was clear that Cheney was referring to Iran, but Peres was more specific, saying the declarations that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes against Israel cannot be ignored.

''We have this problem of the Iranians who want to build two satellites, the Hezbollah and the Hamas in Gaza. ... Nobody can control us and say that declarations by Ahmadinejad are less serious,'' Peres said. ''We have to take it seriously.''

He said time is of the essence in the peace negotiations, but that he believes progress is achievable.

''It will take a little bit longer than we would like to, but I believe they are making some progress,'' Peres said. ''Actually, I wouldn't underestimate its importance. The mere fact that, in spite of the differences, the negotiations go on is a great hope for the future.''

Israel has been pursing peace with Abbas, a moderate Palestinian in control of the West Bank, while battling Hamas militants, who wrested control of the Gaza Strip in June from Abbas-allied forces and has bombarded southern Israel with rockets.

Nimer Hamad, a political adviser to Abbas, said he saw no chance for an agreement this year if Israel continued settlement expansion and its military incursions: ''Without strong American intervention and pressure on Israel, there will be no progress in the peace talks,'' he said.

Scoffing at the Cheney peacekeeping mission, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the ''so-called peace process'' was a ''paralyzed and ailing'' fiction.

Cheney began the day with his wife, Lynne, and daughter, Liz, attending a nondenominational service at Lazarist Monastery, which rents out space to the U.S consulate do diplomatic work with the Palestinian Authority. Afterward, he had breakfast with Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and went to meetings with Peres and Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.

Cheney is on a 10-day trip to the Mideast, where oil, the future of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran's rising influence in the region have highlighted his talks with foreign leaders. His visit here is part of the Bush administration's strategy to keep the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to reach a framework agreement for peace before Bush leaves office in January 2009.

On Saturday night, Cheney offered a bold defense of Israel. Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Cheney said that the United States wants a new beginning for the Palestinian people but will never pressure Israel to take steps that would jeopardize its security.

''America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is our commitment to Israel's right to defend itself -- always -- against terrorism, rocket attacks and other threats from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,'' Cheney said. ''The United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security.''

------

Associated Press Writers Toby Teibel in Jerusalem and Mohammed Daraghmeh in the West Bank contributed to this report.

    Cheney Talks With Palestinians, NYT, 23.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Cheney.html

Cheney Focuses on Mideast Peace Process

March 22, 2008
Filed at 1:16 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney sought to coax Israel and the Palestinians to follow through on promises to forge a peace deal as he began an Easter weekend trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

After two days in Saudi Arabia, the vice president headed into a Saturday evening meeting with Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, soon after his arrival.

Cheney's visit is part of the U.S. strategy to keep the pressure on the two sides, despite recent bloodshed, to agree on a framework for peace before President Bush leaves office in January.

Cheney planned to attend an Easter service Sunday in Jerusalem, then head to Ramallah in the West Bank for talks with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Bush asked Cheney to visit Israel to discuss the peace process and other regional issues in advance of Bush's trip in May to mark the 60th anniversary of the modern state of Israel, according to Cheney spokeswoman Lea Ann McBride.

Bush hosted a Mideast peace conference in November in Annapolis, Md., to kick off the latest effort to resolve the decades-old conflict, and visited the region in January, followed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in March. She plans to return in April.

Cheney's discussions ''will involve the ways forward in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism and protect its citizenry,'' McBride said before the vice president left Saudi Arabia.

She said Cheney also ''looks forward to visiting the Palestinian territories to reaffirm the president's commitment to the current efforts toward the two-state solution and efforts to strengthen Palestinian institutions.''

After Olmert and Abbas agreed at the Annapolis conference to return to peace talks, they resumed along the outlines of a plan that calls for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state through several stages. In the first, Israel was supposed to freeze all construction in West Bank settlements. The Palestinians were to dismantle militant groups such as Hamas that attack Israel.

Neither side fulfilled those initial obligations and recent violence has threatened progress.

Israel is conducting peace negotiations with Abbas' West Bank-based government, while waging a bloody battle with Hamas militants in Gaza, who have fired rockets at Israeli communities in southern Israel. Israel has retaliated with attacks that have killed scores of civilians in Gaza.

In Saudi Arabia, Cheney held talks with King Abdullah on stabilizing the volatile energy market. It was not immediately clear whether Cheney asked the Saudi leader to increase oil production to hold down rising gasoline prices.

The White House contends that oil producers could suffer because of economic slowdowns in the U.S., where pump prices are topping $3 per gallon, and other major oil customers as a result of high energy prices.

Cheney and the king discussed some short-term, but mostly medium- to long-term ways, to affect the energy market, a senior Bush administration official said. The official spoke on conditions of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the private talks.

    Cheney Focuses on Mideast Peace Process, NYT, 22.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Cheney.html

Bush Silent, but Others Speak Out on Tibet

March 22, 2008
The New York Times
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and SOMINI SENGUPTA

WASHINGTON — China’s violent crackdown on protesters in Tibet is having powerful political reverberations in Washington, where the White House is weighing how far to go in condemning the Chinese government, even as it defends President Bush’s decision to attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Mr. Bush has long said the United States and China have “a complex relationship,” and that complexity was on full display this week. While his administration has called for an end to the violence, and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, phoned her Chinese counterpart to urge restraint, Mr. Bush himself has remained silent.

In the meantime, the presidential candidates are speaking out, as is the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. On Friday, Ms. Pelosi visited the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, at his headquarters in Dharamsala, India — and poked a finger in the eye of Beijing.

Describing the clashes in the past week between Chinese security forces and Tibetan demonstrators as “a challenge to conscience of the world,” Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, said, “If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China’s oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world.”

If it seemed like a direct challenge to Mr. Bush, he did not take the bait.

“At this point, there is no doubt that the Chinese government knows where President Bush stands,” said Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman. He said the White House had no comment on Ms. Pelosi’s visit.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959, when China crushed an uprising in Tibet, his homeland. He has been pressing, without success, to return to China to advocate for greater cultural and religious freedom for his followers. China, though, has branded him a “splittist” and has accused him of masterminding the current wave of protests — a charge Ms. Pelosi dismissed as nonsense on Friday.

It was unclear what Ms. Pelosi’s visit would yield for Tibetans. But for Ms. Pelosi, the timing was propitious. In front of a horde of television news cameras that had decamped all week to cover the Dalai Lama, she and her husband, Paul, descended the stairs of the main temple to huge applause, the 72-year-old Buddhist monk between them, holding their hands.

Nuns and schoolchildren waved American flags. The Dalai Lama ordered his followers to rise and offer Ms. Pelosi a standing ovation. One man held up a homemade placard that read, “Thank you for recognizing nonviolent struggle.”

The visit provoked a tart response from the Chinese ambassador to India, who depicted it as American interference. “We don’t allow anybody to meddle in China’s internal affairs,” the ambassador, Zhang Yan, told reporters in New Delhi, according to The Press Trust of India. “Any attempt to cause trouble to China is doomed to fail.”

Ms. Pelosi is hardly the only American politician taking China to task. On Friday, Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, traveling in France, warned that China’s behavior was “not acceptable” for a world power. Earlier in the week, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, the two Democratic presidential contenders, issued strong criticisms of China.

Mr. Bush, too, has made a strong show of solidarity with the Dalai Lama. In October, he met privately with the Tibetan leader at the White House and then attended a ceremony at the Capitol, where the Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. It was the first time the two had appeared in public together, and the White House was well aware of the symbolism.

China analysts say the violence in Tibet demands that the president chart a careful course. “I think to the extent that he can work the issue privately, it’s better, frankly,” said Jeffrey A. Bader, an Asia specialist who worked at the National Security Council under President Clinton. “The public statements just make the Chinese dig in their heels all the more, make them more resolute in their repression.”

American presidents have historically found relations with China to be a delicate dance. But none more so than Mr. Bush, especially since September, when he met with China’s president, Hu Jintao, in Sydney, Australia, and accepted Mr. Hu’s invitation to attend the Beijing Olympics.

Mr. Bush has said that he wants to support American athletes and views the Games as a sporting event, but that he will use his attendance to put pressure on China to improve its human rights record. But human rights advocates have linked the Olympics with violence in the Darfur region of Sudan and have accused Mr. Bush of giving his imprimatur to a country that, in their view, is not exerting enough influence as a major buyer of Sudanese oil to stop what the White House has termed a genocide.

On Capitol Hill, two representatives, Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, and Neil Abercrombie, Democrat of Hawaii, are leading a push for a boycott of the Beijing Games. China analysts, though, say Mr. Bush has little choice but to attend, even if it means a political backlash at home.

“This is China’s coming out party,” said Michael Green, an Asia expert and former Bush administration official. “If he were to cancel, it would be such a loss of face for China that it would make working with them on issues from North Korea to human rights much more difficult.”

So far, Mr. Bush has stood firm.

“I’m going to the Olympics,” the president said last month, when Steven Spielberg, the filmmaker, announced that he was dropping out as an artistic adviser for the Games. “I view the Olympics as a sporting event. On the other hand, I have a little different platform than Steven Spielberg, so I get to talk to President Hu Jintao.”

If the violence in Tibet grows, however, the pressure could increase for Mr. Bush to take some kind of symbolic stand. The French foreign minister said this week that he would entertain the idea of skipping the Olympics opening ceremony — a symbolic gesture that would be less than a full boycott. Mr. Johndroe said such a step was not under discussion at the White House.

“We’re focused on ending the violence now,” he said, “not an event six months from now.”

Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported from Washington, and Somini Sengupta from Dharamsala, India.

    Bush Silent, but Others Speak Out on Tibet, NYT, 22.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/world/asia/22prexy.html

VP:

Iran May Have Resumed

Weapon Program

March 19, 2008
Filed at 1:11 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney retained his tough stance against Iran on Wednesday and said the U.S. is uncertain if Tehran has restarted the nuclear weaponization program that a U.S. intelligence report says it halted in 2003.

Speaking in Oman, a U.S.-allied Arab monarchy and neighbor of Iran's, Cheney told ABC News, ''The important thing to keep in mind is the objective that we share with many of our friends in the region, and that is that a nuclear-armed Iran would be very destabilizing for the entire area.''

In December an intelligence report known as the National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran's nuclear weapons development program was stopped in the fall of 2003 because of international pressure. The report, however, cautioned that Tehran continues to enrich uranium and still could develop a bomb between 2010 and 2015 if it decided to do so.

Critics of the Bush administration said the report should dampen any campaign for a U.S. confrontation with Iran.

But Cheney that that while the NIE said Iran had a program to develop a nuclear warhead, it remains unclear if it has resumed that activity.

''What it (the NIE) says is that they have definitely had in the past a program to develop a nuclear warhead; that it would appear that they stopped that weaponization process in 2003. We don't know whether or not they've restarted,'' he said.

''What we do know is that they had then, and have now, a process by which they're trying to enrich uranium, which is the key obstacle they've got to overcome in order to have a nuclear weapon,'' he added. ''They've been working at it for years.''

The vice president's visit to Oman, part of a 10-day trip to the Mideast, fueled speculation that the United States was ratcheting up military pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. As a quiet U.S. military ally, Oman allows the United States to use four air bases -- including one just 50 miles from Iran -- for refueling, logistics and storage of pre-positioned military supplies.

Cheney denied that he'd stepped up his opposition to Iran's nuclear policy.

''I've been pretty consistent over time about Iran,'' he said. ''I don't think I've ratcheted up the rhetoric. I felt strongly for a long time, and a lot of us have, that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.''

Cheney officials said the vice president wanted to visit the sultanate to show U.S. appreciation for its cooperation in fighting terrorism, but that Iran would be a top topic of discussion.

Before dining with Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Cheney borrowed his 60-foot royal yacht and went fishing.

A Cheney spokeswoman said the vice president, his wife Lynne, and daughter, Liz, a former State Department official who is traveling with her father as a private citizen, headed out under sunny skies into the Gulf of Oman on ''Kingfish I.'' Cheney has had a personal relationship with the sultan going back to the time when the vice president was defense secretary, but the sultan did not go along on the fishing trip.

(This version CORRECTS RECASTS lede to clarify that U.S. doesn't know if Tehran has restarted weapons program, might have restarted it, corrects writethru sequence)

    VP: Iran May Have Resumed Weapon Program, NYT, 19.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Cheney.html

Rice Calls

for Mideast Peace Talks to Resume

March 5, 2008
The New York Times
By HELENE COOPER

CAIRO — Speaking at the start of her visit to the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Tuesday for Palestinian negotiators to return to peace talks, saying that “rejectionists” in the militant Islamist organization, Hamas, were hoping to subvert the peace process through violence and that the Palestinian government should not let them.

“I understand that it has been a very difficult circumstance,” she said, referring to the death toll that has risen since rockets from Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, landed on the Israeli city of Ashkelon last week, prompting an Israeli incursion into Gaza that left many Palestinian civilians dead. “Innocent people should not have to die,” she said.

Ms. Rice’s comments came just before she headed to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who suspended Palestinian-Israeli peace talks on Sunday in response to the Israeli attacks in Gaza.

At a press conference alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Cairo, Ms. Rice again defended Israel’s right to self defense, but added that she was concerned about civilian casualties.

Mr. Gheit was more pointed in criticizing Israel, and referred to what he called “the imbalance in the use of power.”

Ms. Rice’s trip comes at a difficult time, as she is trying to keep peace talks — which the Bush administration sees as its best chance for leaving a foreign policy legacy that reaches beyond the Iraq war — on track.

But highlighting the predicament in which the Bush administration has now found itself in as it tries to broker a Middle East peace deal, Ms. Rice has steadfastly refused to use the phrase “cease-fire,” even though several of America’s Arab allies, and even some Israelis, have said that what is needed is a negotiated end to hostilities between Hamas and Israel.

“I’m saying that we want the violence to stop,” Ms. Rice told reporters on her flight Monday as she headed to Egypt. “Call it what you will.”

Ms. Rice wants to avoid the word “cease-fire” because administration officials believe that a negotiated cease-fire between Israel and Hamas—which the United States and Israel view as a terrorist organization—would legitimize Hamas in the eyes of the Palestinian people.

The fear, administration officials said, is that a negotiated cease-fire would likely undermine Mr. Abbas and make it look like Hamas is the entity with which Israel and the West should be negotiating, and not Mr. Abbas.

To counter that fear, Mr. Abbas has called for a cease-fire but he has made sure to offer up himself as the mediator in any such negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

President Bush has said that he wants a Middle East peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians before his term expires, but the latest violence in Gaza is making that look like an increasingly unlikely prospect, Middle East experts said.

Both Palestinian and American officials say that they expect Mr. Abbas to return to the negotiating table soon, in part because the peace talks are his biggest selling point with the broader Palestinian body politic.

Hamas, which seized control of Gaza last summer, is not part of the peace process, despite the fact that it won the Palestinian legislative elections two years ago.

“We need to continue to work to make sure that everyone understands that Hamas is doing what we expected — using attacks on Israel to try to arrest a peace process in which they have nothing to gain,” Ms. Rice said. “We need to keep the focus on that.”

    Rice Calls for Mideast Peace Talks to Resume, NYT, 4.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/world/middleeast/05diplo.html?hp

2pm GMT

US air strike targets Somalian extremists

Monday March 3 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Allegra Stratton and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday March 03 2008.
It was last updated at 14:05 on March 03 2008.

The US today fired missiles on a town in Somalia run by Islamic extremists, the Pentagon said.

The strike was carried out early this morning, destroying a home and seriously injuring eight people, including four children, residents and police said.

The missiles that struck Dobley, four miles (6km) from the Kenyan border, were from military aircraft, witnesses said.

"We woke up with a loud and big bang and when we came out we found our neighbour's house completely obliterated as if no house existed here," said Fatuma Abdullahi, a resident of the town. "We are taking shelter under trees. Three planes were flying over our heads."

A police officer who gave only his first name, Siyad, said the eight wounded were hit by shrapnel.

An aid worker in Dobley said up to six people were still trapped in the rubble by midday (9am GMT). It was not clear if these victims were included in the police officer's tally.

"A minimum of two bombs were dropped," the aid worker said. "Between four and six people are in the rubble."

Remnants of an Islamic force that once ruled much of southern Somalia took over Dobley last week.

Ahmed Nur Dalab, a clan elder, said a leader of the force, Hassan Turki, had visited the town on Sunday to mediate between his fighters and a militia loyal to the government.

In early 2007, Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies drove out the radical Islamist group to which Turki is allied. The Islamist forces have fought to regain power.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

    US air strike targets Somalian extremists, G, 3.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/03/somalia.usa

News Analysis

Gaza Pitfalls in Every Path

March 3, 2008
The New York Times
By HELENE COOPER

WASHINGTON — Ever since the militant Islamist organization Hamas took over Gaza eight months ago, President Bush’s peace plan for the Middle East has been to prop up the more moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the hopes that Palestinians would rally behind him as man who could bring them statehood and make Hamas irrelevant.

But Israel’s military and economic pressure on Gaza, the menacing rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and the ensuing chaos that reached new heights this weekend have highlighted a fundamental tangle in that plan: As long as Hamas controls Gaza, it can subvert negotiations between Israelis and moderate Palestinians whenever it sees fit.

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the region on Monday, a trip planned for weeks, she is confronting very few options in achieving President Bush’s stated goal of peace between Israel and a new Palestinian state that includes both the West Bank, where Mr. Abbas’s government sits, and Gaza.

“She’s walking into a buzz saw,” said Aaron David Miller, author of “The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace.” “You cannot make peace with half of the Palestinian polity and go to war with the other half.”

On Sunday, as violence spilled over from Gaza into the West Bank, a spokesman for Mr. Abbas said talks with Israel had been suspended.

In many ways, the latest crisis, in which Israeli aircraft and troops have attacked Palestinian positions in northern Gaza after long-range rockets from Gaza hit the large Israeli city of Ashkelon, looks like the Lebanon war of July 2006, when Israel bombed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

The Israelis are also facing criticism similar to that made during the Lebanon war — that their response has been disproportionate and killed many civilians, including children. And just as Israel faced tough decisions on Lebanon, the United States finds itself with dwindling choices, none considered attractive.

Ms. Rice could encourage Israel to increase the strikes against Hamas in the hopes of destroying its leadership in Gaza. But Israel tried that with Hezbollah in Lebanon and failed, leaving Hezbollah leaders to assert when the war was over that they had stood up to Israel.

Even if Israel did go all out to defeat Hamas in Gaza, the problem of what comes after would remain. For instance, would Israeli forces stay in Gaza, or would they be replaced by an international force from the already stretched NATO or the United Nations?

Ms. Rice’s other alternative — encouraging Israel to negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas — has pitfalls, Middle East experts say, because that would further legitimize Hamas, which the United States and Israel consider a terrorist organization. Martin Indyk, the former United States ambassador to Israel, said such a cease-fire would further undermine Mr. Abbas and make it look like Hamas is the entity with which Israel and the West should be negotiating.

“Excluding them doesn’t work, and including them doesn’t work, either,” Mr. Indyk said. “So what do you do? This is a situation that does not lend itself to a sensible policy.”

With the rocket attacks on Israel, Hamas has demonstrated power to threaten peace talks simply by inciting a strong Israeli response and making it impossible for Mr. Abbas to sit by and do nothing. On Sunday, the day after Israeli aircraft and troops attacked Gaza, resulting in the biggest one-day death toll in more than a year, Mr. Abbas announced that he was suspending the peace negotiations in protest.

Mr. Abbas’s options, too, are limited, Palestinian experts say, given that the peace negotiation with Israel is his main selling point for his claim that he is the only one who can bring the Palestinians a deal with Israel.

A senior Bush administration figure acknowledged on Sunday that Ms. Rice “is playing a really bad hand.” So far, the Bush administration is adhering to a position very similar to the one it used during the Lebanon war.

As with Hezbollah, Ms. Rice is standing behind Israel’s right to defend itself. Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said late Saturday that the United States wanted to see “an end to violence and all acts of terrorism directed against innocent civilians.” But, he noted, “there is a clear distinction between terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians and action in self defense.”

As with the Lebanon war, Ms. Rice is, at the same time, trying to prop up a besieged “moderate” leader — this time, Mr. Abbas instead of the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora. But — just as with Hezbollah — she cannot stop the rocket attacks onto Israel from Gaza because the United States does not talk to Hamas.

“This is beyond her capacity, and beyond even the capacity of a secretary of state like Kissinger or Baker,” said Mr. Miller, who served as a Middle East negotiator for the last three presidents. “This is rooted in a fundamental problem that we haven’t acknowledged: Israel cannot make peace with a divided Palestine.”

Even within Israel, many experts are echoing that view. A few weeks ago, Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the Negev desert town of Dimona, the first such attack in more than a year. Shlomo Brom, a retired general at the Institute for National Security Studies, said the bombing was meant “to send a clear message” to Mr. Abbas, Israel and the United States that there will be no normalization of life without Hamas.

Mr. Brom advocates dialogue with Hamas. But the United States and Israel have refused to deal with Hamas leaders unless the organization forswears violence and acknowledges Israel’s right to exist.

So Ms. Rice will try to press surrogates, including Egypt, to lean on Hamas, administration officials say. And she will sharply criticize rocket attacks on civilian Israeli targets, and publicly charge Hamas with hiding behind civilians in Gaza. She will meet with Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, in the West Bank, and with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and his foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.

Ali Abunimah, a research fellow at the Palestine Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, derided the American strategy of ignoring Hamas: “You can’t talk to them. You can’t deal with them. You just cover your ears, close your eyes and pretend they don’t exist.”

Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Gaza Pitfalls in Every Path, NYT, 3.3.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/world/middleeast/03diplo.html