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U.S. to lead meet on West Asia conflict

Ewen MacAskill and Patrick Wintour

Crusade against Palestinians: Hamas

Washington: President George Bush on Monday announced a U.S.-led international conference which would take place before the end of the year to resolve what he said were all the outstanding issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The ambitious conference would bring together Israelis, Palestinians and Arab governments in an as yet unannounced location. The Wes Asia group, the Quartet — made up of the U.S., the U.N., Russia and the E.U.— will play a central role.

Mr. Bush’s announcement comes only days before the Quartet’s special envoy, Tony Blair attends his first meeting of the group of four. The former U.K. Prime Minister has been pushing Mr. Bush for the past five years to take an active role in trying to end the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. On Monday, Mr. Bush gave his blessing to Mr. Blair’s new career as an unpaid West Asia envoy.

Mr. Bush has adopted a mainly hands-off approach to the conflict over the past six years. His intervention now, with 18 months to go before his presidency ends, comes at an inauspicious point for a peace deal, with the Palestinians divided between the Fatah-controlled West Bank and Hamas-controlled Gaza. Hamas is unlikely to be invited: Mr. Bush said it must first renounce violence and recognise Israel.

Mr. Bush called the present time “a moment of clarity for all Palestinians. And now comes a moment of choice.” In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman, called Mr. Bush’s remarks “a new crusade by Bush against the Palestinian people” and appealed to the Arab world to confront it. — Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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