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Dec 29, 2008

'Committed' to Mid East peace

WASHINGTON - BARACK Obama is 'committed' to achieving peace in the Middle East, a top aide to the US president-elect said on Sunday, after one of the bloodiest days in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

'Obviously, this situation has become even more complicated in the last couple of days and weeks. As Hamas began its shelling, Israel responded. But it's something that he's committed to,' Mr David Axelrod told CBS television.

The massive air offensive launched on Saturday by Israel on the Gaza Strip in response to a wave of Palestinian-fired rockets has already killed more than 300 people, placing Middle East peace at the top of foreign policy crises piling up on Mr Obama's agenda.

Mr Obama 'is monitoring the situation,' Mr Axelrod told NBC in another interview, adding that the Democrat received a related telephone briefing on Saturday from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

'But we've said repeatedly through this transition period that there's only one president at a time, and President (George W.) Bush speaks for the United States of America until January 20th, and we're going to honor that moving forward'.

Mr Bush's efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007, after a seven-year hiatus, ultimately failed to produce a hoped-for peace deal by the end of this year.

But Dr Rice told CBS that the Bush administration was leaving prospects for Middle East peace 'in much better shape than we found it'.

She has said she holds Hamas responsible for the latest breakout of violence in Gaza.

'I think (Obama) wants to get a handle on the situation, so that when he becomes president on January 20th, he has the advantage of all the facts and information leading up to that point,' Mr Axelrod told CBS.

Mr Obama will also have to deal with a new administration in Israel, where parliamentary elections are planned for February 10.

But he has already signaled he intends to maintain strong ties between the United States and Israel.

'I think he recognises that special relationship. He's going to work closely with the Israelis. They're a great ally of ours, the most important ally in the region. And that is a fundamental principle from which he'll work,' Mr Axelrod added on CBS.

'But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace, and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that - toward that objective.'

Mrs Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama's incoming secretary of state pending Senate confirmation, has been a staunch supporter of Israel during her tenure as senator from New York, which has a large Jewish constituency.

'The next president must be ready to say to the world: America's position is unchanging, our resolve unyielding, our stance nonnegotiable,' Mrs Clinton told the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in June.

'The United States stands with Israel, now and forever.'

In a July interview with The New York Times, Mr Obama said he did not think that 'any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens', in reference to rockets fired from Gaza into Israel.

'If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that,' Mr Obama said.

'And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.'

As for talking with Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of Gaza, Mr Obama told the newspaper that it was 'very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognise your right to exist, has consistently used terror as a weapon, and is deeply influenced by other countries'. -- AFP

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