Bush Still Confident on Mideast Peace
There has been fresh violence as Condoleezza Rice visits the region.
March 4, 2008— -- With only 10 months left in his term andIsraeli-Palestinian talks collapsed over renewed violence,President Bush said Tuesday he still believes there is "plenty oftime" to get a Mideast peace deal before he leaves.
"This is a process that always has two steps forward and onestep back," Bush said after meeting at the White House withJordan's King Abdullah II. "We just need to make sure that it'sjust one step back."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the region this weektrying to rescue peace negotiations from a low point.
Open warfare has engulfed the Gaza Strip in the last week. AfterPalestinian militants fired rockets into southern Israel, theJewish state launched a major offensive in the Gaza territory thatis controlled by the militant Hamas movement and used as a base forthe rocket launches. The offensive prompted the moderatePalestinian leadership in control of the West Bank territory towalk out of peace talks.
But, said Bush, "Ten months is a long time. It's plenty of timeto get a deal done." He noted that Rice was pushing the Israeliand Palestinian leadership to resume talks.
"I am optimistic that they can conclude tough negotiations,"he said. "I'm still as optimistic as I was after Annapolis," thesite of a U.S.-backed international Mideast peace conference inMaryland late last year.
Bush, noting his typical opposition to timetables, said heremains firm on getting a peace deal done: "There happens to be atimetable, as far as I'm concerned, and that is I am leavingoffice." The president's term ends on January 20, 2009.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has suspended peace talks inprotest of an Israeli military offensive that killed more than 100Palestinians in Gaza.
Abbas on Tuesday called on the Israeli government "to halt itsaggression so the necessary environment can be created to makenegotiations succeed, for us and for them, to reach the shores ofpeace in 2008."
His public comments were a disappointment for the United States,which had hoped for a firmer commitment to renew negotiationslaunched by the Bush administration at a the Annapolis conference.Rice looked on, lips pursed, as Abbas called Israel's actionunjustified "under any pretext."
