EEUU

La Casa Blanca trabaja para aliviar el daño a los esfuerzos de política exterior

Autor: Robin Wright

Fecha: 23/3/2004

Traductor: Celeste Murillo, especial para P.I.

Fuente: Washington Post

White House Working to Ease Damage to Foreign Policy Efforts

The Bush administration said it was "deeply troubled" by Israel's assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and it struggled yesterday to limit repercussions on a range of U.S. foreign policy priorities, including the war on terrorism, rebuilding Iraq, democratic reforms in the Arab world and the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Senior administration officials warned of the potential consequences publicly and in private talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. "It is very important that everyone step back and try now to be calm in the region. There is always a possibility of a better day in the Middle East and some of the things that are being talked about by the Israelis . . . might provide new opportunities," said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"And so I would hope that nothing will be done that would preclude those new opportunities from emerging," she said on NBC's "Today" show.

The administration condemned the group Yassin founded, the Islamic Resistance Movement (known as Hamas), as a terrorist group and affirmed Israel's right to self-defense. But it tried to distance itself from Israel's decision. White House and State Department officials emphasized that the United States had no advance knowledge of the plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"The United States is deeply concerned about, deeply troubled by this morning's actions. . . . The event, in our view, increases tension and doesn't help our efforts to resume progress towards peace," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "The increase in tension in the region, the natural reaction of many people in the region is going to make progress more difficult."

The Israeli missile strike, which killed the Hamas leader and seven others, has triggered alarm among U.S. officials and Middle East experts that attacks in Israel and the war on terrorism may enter a deadlier phase.

"Israel's decision may have been for its security, but it certainly has implications -- for internal politics and regional events -- for Egypt, Jordan, the United States, Europe and others. It will have shock waves and ripple effects," said Robert Malley, Middle East program director for the International Crisis Group. "Hamas has not targeted American or other targets outside the occupied territories. That might change, whether done by Hamas or in alliance with others or by others in sympathy with Hamas."

A group linked to al Qaeda, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, issued a statement on an Islamist Web site pledging revenge against the United States and its allies over Yassin's death, Reuters reported.

U.S. officials and Middle East experts are also concerned about the potential linkage of what have been separate issues, such as the reconstruction of Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called the assassination an "ugly crime" and called for Muslim unity as a response. "We call upon the sons of the Arab and Islamic nations to close ranks, unite and work hard for the liberation of the usurped land and restore rights," Sistani said in a statement.

The administration also is worried that yesterday's attack will divert attention from two key initiatives on the agenda of next week's Arab League summit in Tunis: an endorsement of political and economic change in the region, and reviving an earlier Arab peace overture to Israel. The United States backs both proposals.

"The killing of Sheik Yassin is what the Arabs are going to want to talk about," said a senior State Department official involved in Middle East policy. "It will in turn undercut their willingness to consider how to push their peace plan, or the possibility of benefits of an Israeli pullout" from Gaza, which Sharon has proposed.

Middle East experts predict that Arab public backlash could even cripple the two Arab League initiatives. "This happens when all the governments face battles with their own public opinion. This assassination makes all these efforts difficult if not impossible," said Shibley Telhami, who holds the University of Maryland's Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development.

The State Department said Washington will continue to work on peace, while nudging both Israelis and Palestinians. "Both sides have obligations and in particular the Palestinian Authority must do everything in its power to confront and halt the terror and violence," Boucher said.
But he also repeated U.S. opposition to Israel's policy of "targeted killings."

Israel's foreign minister met yesterday with Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Rice in long-scheduled meetings. After talks with Cheney, Shalom said Israel is "doing everything we can to coordinate our future moves with the American administration."

Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns met in Cairo yesterday with envoys from the United Nations, European Union and Russia -- who joined the U.S. in backing the peace plan known as the "road map" -- to discuss the status of that initiative and Sharon's plan for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. The United States had hoped to be able to blend Sharon's plan with the road map, although both U.S. officials and Middle East experts fear the attack may hurt the effort.

"The dilemma for the Bush administration is who fills the vacuum once Israel withdraws? A withdrawal could very well now produce Hamas terrorist leadership," said Martin S. Indyk, former ambassador to Israel for the Clinton and current Bush administrations and now at the Brookings Institution Saban Center for Middle East Policy. "Then the U.S. faces the possibility of a failed terrorist state on the border of Israel and Egypt. How do you deal with that?