Three Major Peace Issues Dominate Bush-Blair Summit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 07, 2003

Three Major Peace Issues Dominate Bush-Blair Summit

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US President George W. Bush, who was due to arrive on Monday afternoon for a two-day visit, would address three major peace issues at a summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his firm ally in the ongoing war against Iraq.

The summit, the third of its kind between the two leaders within three weeks, would focus on such issues as the Iraq war, the Middle East peace process and the steps needed to complete the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Bush and Blair would hold a joint press conference around 1100 GMT on Tuesday morning in the Hillsborough Castle, a spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Office told Xinhua, adding that the village of Hillsborough would be closed to all traffic except for local residents during the events.

UN Role Postwar Iraq High on Agenda

As the coalition forces are advancing towards Baghdad, Bush and Blair were likely to focus on the postwar reconstruction of Iraq and what role the United Nations can play in the process, analysts predicted.

Differences have emerged between the two countries over how long should it be before Iraq is handed over to an interim Iraqi administration, and how powerful a US-led group of generals and former diplomats should be to effectively run the country.

According to media reports, British Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien recently outlined proposals in which a US team headed by retired general Jay Garner would advise and make decisions about running basic services in the "few weeks" after the war in Iraq, along with a UN commissioner.

The general would then hand the power over to an interim Iraqi authority "as quickly as possible" before a UN-backed conference of Iraqi groups could lay the path to elections in the country.

But America's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, appeared to sideline the United Nations on Friday when she said the coalition "would have the leading role" in rebuilding Iraq.

Pentagon has begun outlining proposals for postwar Iraq, putting the United States in charge, at least for the first three months.

However, the analysts said Britain and the United States are expected to decide how they would perform during the next phase of diplomatic tussle over Iraq at the coming summit despite the fact that the war in Iraq is still under way.

Middle East Peace to be Discussed

The summit would also highlight the Middle East peace process, raising expectations that the long-promised road map to the creation of a Palestinian state would finally be published.

The United Nations and European mediators for the Middle East had pressed the United States to release the road map after months of hesitation partly caused by Israeli objections.

Days before the United States launched this ongoing war on Iraq,Bush on March 14 swore his commitment to the road map once a Palestinian prime minister is installed with "real authority" to conduct reforms and curb militant violence in the Middle East.

However, White House officials on Friday played down the prospect that Bush and Blair would release the road map, drafted by the US-led Quartet which prescribes a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.

The escalation of the US-led military campaign in Iraq was likely to raise more roadblocks to the long-delayed peace plan between Israel and Palestine which had already mired in disputes over how to carry it out, analysts said.

N. Ireland's Peace Sees Hope

Bush and Blair would swing to Northern Ireland after their joint news conference on Tuesday, and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was set to join the talk on the peace process in Northern Ireland, said the Northern Ireland Office.

They were also expected to meet with some key Northern Ireland leaders of the province's three main political parties, the Ulster

Union, the Sinn Fein Party and the Social Democratic and Labor Party, with the aim of urging them to take the final steps for the deadlocked peace process.

Northern Ireland's four-party power-sharing government, set up under the 1998 Good Friday agreement, was suspended in last October following row over alleged spying by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Assembly elections scheduled for early March have been postponed until May 29 to give more time for negotiations after Blair and his Irish counterpart failed to break the deadlock during their talks with the parties in Northern Ireland earlier last month.

By visiting Belfast at this crucial stage of war in Iraq, Bush is thought to do a favor for Blair, who has sent about 45,000 servicemen for fighting with US troops in the Gulf, the analysts said.

Bush has not taken a close interest in the details of the Northern Ireland peace process, and his involvement would be seen as a sign to show that he would not revert to isolationism once the Iraq crisis is resolved, they added. (Xinhua News)

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