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Bush Team Urged to Be Fair Peace Broker: UAE Newspapers
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) leading newspapers Saturday urged George W. Bush, who will be officially sworn in as US president Saturday, to adhere to international resolutions on the Mideast peace process and abandon its blind bias towards Israel.
"The Bush administration should observe and respect international resolutions and references on the Middle East peace process, get rid of the complex of siding with Israel," the Dubai-based Arabic daily Al Bayan said.
The paper said a settlement can only be achieved through acting as a fair broker to the peace process and by exercising pressure on Israel to offer concessions.
The Middle East can no longer tolerate more tension amid the current deadlock in the peace process, the paper said, warning the Bush team should distance itself from its predecessor's line and not follow its policies, especially those in favour of Israel, if it wants to succeed in what former President Bill Clinton failed.
The Sharjah-based daily Al Khaleej regretted that some Arab countries has rushed to the new US president before testing his waters in the hope that a change on the US policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict could take place in his term.
This is partly because of incoming US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is a personality enjoying widely respects in Arab World.
Powell has laid out his vision of America's foreign policy over the Middle East region, promising that the US would do everything it can to deal with the aspirations of the Palestinians and the other nations in the region who have an interest in this.
"Of course, no one wants Bush to disappoint those who bet on him, but the Arab policy of rushing towards US presidents should come to end," the paper said
"there may be some positive aspects that Arabs make use of their relationship with Bush, whose administration may be less Zionist than that of Clinton."
"However, these positive points, if they are, should be taken in the context that Washington's policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict is based on the Arab-Israel balance of power," concluded the paper.
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