Clinton calls for action to forge Mideast peace

[March 02, 2009]  SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on her first foray into Middle East diplomacy, declared the Obama administration committed to pushing intensively to find a way for Israelis and Palestinians to exist peacefully in separate states.

She used an international donors conference to issue a blunt call Monday for urgent action to forge a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

"We cannot afford more setbacks or delays -- or regrets about what might have been, had different decisions been made," she said in apparent reference to the failure of previous peace initiatives, including those pushed vigorously by her husband's administration.

With the Obama administration's Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, seated behind her at a conference meant to raise billions to help the Gaza Strip recover from its recent war with Israel, Clinton said President Barack Obama would continue the Bush administration's focus on seeking a two-state solution that entails Israel and a sovereign Palestinian state co-existing in peace.

She made it clear, however, that Mideast leaders could count on Obama to take a more active approach than did his predecessor, George W. Bush.

"It is time to look ahead," she said, with an eye on the human aspects of what years of regional conflict have meant for the Palestinians and others.

"The United States is committed to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and we will pursue it on many fronts," she said.

Clinton, who is scheduled to travel this week to Jerusalem to consult with Israeli government officials and to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian officials, said the United States was pledging $900 million to the international aid effort for the Gaza Strip. She gave no breakdown of the funds, but her spokesman, Robert A. Wood, said on Sunday that it included $300 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza and about $600 million in budget and development aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank.

The Obama administration is casting its contributions as a calculated effort to ensure that the money does not reach Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and is viewed by Washington as a terrorist organization and not a legitimate governing body.

"We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands," Clinton told the conference. She did not explicitly mention Hamas but alluded to extremist elements.

"It is time to break the cycle of rejection and resistance," she said, "to cut the strings pulled by those who exploit the suffering of innocent people."

The Sharm el-Sheik conference was called in the aftermath of the Gaza crisis, which remains in danger of heating up. Israel ended its air and ground assault meant to halt rocket fire coming from Gaza about six weeks ago with a shaky cease-fire by both sides. Some 1,300 Palestinians -- at least half of them civilians -- and 13 Israelis died in the three-week offensive, officials have said.

Militants have continued to fire rockets sporadically into southern Israel, triggering retaliatory airstrikes. In her address, Clinton took note of the continuing rocket attacks.

"These attacks must stop," she said.

Clinton stressed that the Obama administration is taking a wide-angle view of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza following weeks of attacks by Israel in response to Hamas rockets fired into southern Israel.

"Our response to today's crisis in Gaza cannot be separated from our broader efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace," she said. "Only by acting now can we turn this crisis into an opportunity that moves us closer to our shared goals."

"By providing humanitarian aid to Gaza we also aim to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state can be fully realized, a state that is a responsible partner, is at peace with Israel and its Arab neighbors and is accountable to its people," she added.

Before Clinton spoke, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the conference he was encouraged by the Obama administration's approach to the Mideast. He singled out President Barack Obama's decision to appoint George Mitchell a special Mideast peace envoy.

"Early and full U.S. engagement is indispensable if we are to make real progress," Ban said, referring to the wider Israeli-Arab conflict.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told the delegates that Clinton's presence at the conference "reminds us of the persistence" of former President Bill Clinton in his administration's intense but ultimately unsuccessful efforts to reach a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal.

In her address, Clinton also said "we take inspiration from" a 2002 Arab-Israel peace plan put forward by Saudi Arabia. The Saudi proposal -- later adopted by the Arab league -- offers peace to Israel in exchange for land seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.

Clinton scheduled one-on-one meetings with several of her Mideast counterparts, including Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and foreign ministers from Morocco, Algerian, Libya and Tunisia. She also was to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. After the daylong conference she was flying to Jerusalem.

Clinton also planned to attend a meeting at Sharm el-Sheik of the so-called Quartet of international mediating nations -- the U.S., the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- seeking to forge progress toward peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Obama administration officials had indicated last week that the U.S. was preparing to pledge $900 million in assistance for Gaza, but Wood's description of the plan Sunday indicated that the only portion going directly to Gaza was $300 million.

Some portion of the $900 million total U.S. pledge had already been budgeted for 2009, Wood said, adding that he could not immediately provide a breakdown.

Getting U.S. humanitarian aid quickly to Gaza is complicated by the U.S. refusal to funnel it through the Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. Wood said the U.S. aid that does not go directly to the Palestinian Authority would be funneled to Gaza through international organizations and agencies.

[Associated Press; By ROBERT BURNS]

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