US to offer new Middle East peace plan

While saying the administration would renew its push for a lasting peace, Hillary Clinton also called on Arab leaders to heed the demands of popular demonstrations sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.

ecretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh meet with reporters at the State Department in Washington,

JERUSALEM // Hillary Clinton announced the US plans to breathe new life into the Middle East peace process as an apparent rift grows between the United States and Europe over how to revive talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Mrs Clinton, the US secretary of state, told a gathering of Muslim and US dignitaries in Washington late on Tuesday that President Barack Obama was preparing to outline a "renewed pursuit of comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace" in the coming weeks.

While saying the administration would renew its push for a lasting peace, Mrs Clinton also called on Arab leaders to heed the demands of popular demonstrations sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. She warned that although the "long Arab winter has begun to thaw", the revolutionary fervour would amount to "just a mirage in the desert" without a willingness by regional leaders to support this change.

"All the signs of progress we have seen in recent months will only be meaningful if more leaders in more places move faster and further to embrace this spirit of reform," she said.

During her candid presentation in front of the US-Islamic World Forum, she singled out Bahrain. Its Sunni Muslim monarchy violently suppressed a wave of pro-reform demonstrations led primarily by the small island nation's majority population of Shiites.

"Security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain," she said of the firm American ally, which serves as the home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.

"Violence is not, and cannot be, the answer. A political process is."

While offering few details of the administration's new Mideast peace plan, she compared the sustainability of the stalemated Israel-Palestinian negotiations to the region's "political systems that have crumbled in recent months".

She also placed particular importance on America's role in finding a solution to the conflict. "And while it is a truism that only the parties themselves can make the hard choices for peace," Mrs Clinton said, "there is no substitute for continued, active American leadership - and the president and I are committed to that."

Her comments came after the US reportedly snuffed out a proposal by European nations to renew face-to-face talks between the two sides. The framework was planned for discussion at an informal gathering on Friday of the Middle East peace Quartet: the US, European Union, Russia and the UN.

The issue is likely to strain relations between the US and the rest of the Quartet, which appears to have taken a divergent path from Washington's since talks broke down last September.

Since then, European capitals have given a warmer reception than Washington to Palestinian efforts aimed at preparing themselves for statehood by September.

The Obama administration, which prefers a negotiated settlement, has bristled at Palestinian attempts to earn international recognition.

A Palestinian official, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation who is involved in courting international support, said he was not surprised by reports that the Obama administration blocked the European proposal.

"All throughout the peace talks that it has sponsored, from 1991 till today, the US has been a major problem," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He criticised the US for having a "monopoly" on peace talks, and said: "It is now in our interest, and it's our objective, that the peacemaking in the region is monitored and enforced by as many international actors as possible."

The Associated Press reported that Britain, France and Germany had drawn up a framework aimed at renewing talks that would address the issue of a final settlement. They hoped the idea would be introduced on the sidelines of a Nato meeting in Berlin to representatives of the Quartet.

Instead, the news agency reported, Washington rejected the idea and postponed the meeting. It quoted an anonymous American diplomat as saying it "wasn't the right time" for the European initiative.

Palestinians began concentrating their diplomacy in Europe following a US decision in the UN Security Council in February to veto a Palestinian-backed resolution. The measure, which would have condemned Israel's settlements as illegal, earned the support of the council's other 14 members.

It is not clear when the Quartet will hold its next meeting. Farhan Haq, the UN deputy spokesman, said that "there's no announcement of a Quartet meeting to make at present". The last scheduled meeting, in March, was also delayed.

The European talks proposal came as Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, attempts to shield his government from growing international pressure over its pro-settler policies and intransigence on the Palestinian issue.

There have been a number of stories in Israeli media in recent weeks on different schemes apparently floated by the Israeli leader to fend off outside criticism.

On Monday, Mr Netanyahu requested a delay in the construction on 2,500 settlement homes in East Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu's refusal to extend a partial moratorium on construction in Jewish settlements last September led to the collapse of the US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians.

An article in the Israeli daily Haaretz on Tuesday claimed Mr Netanyahu was considering a limited removal of Israeli troops from the West Bank.

The organisation representing Israel's Jewish settlements, the Yesha Council, immediately responded with a statement criticising the possibility of a partial withdrawal.

"Instead of behaving with a cool head and reason," the Yesha Council statement said, "Israel is radiating panic."

However, Mark Regev, Mr Netanyahu's spokesperson, dismissed the Haaretz article, calling it "a speculative story".