US President George W. Bush on Tuesday condemned the latest suicide attack in Israel and pledged to move forward with attempts to seek peace in the Middle East. "There are people who don't want peace and therefore are willing to kill" innocent people to scuttle the peace effort, Bush said.
"We strongly deplore and condemn terrorist violence," Bush said prior to a NATO summit. He called on Israel, Palestinians and Arab leaders to find ways to ease tensions. "All of us, all of us involved in the peace process ... must do everything we can to stop terrorist attacks." Bush said.
Earlier, US officials said the Bush administration is to intensify American involvement in the Middle East crisis by offering a roadmap for peace talks that could include a negotiating schedule for achieving agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, reported AP.
Bush's foreign policy team is debating a series of options in hopes of settling on a new peace initiative in time for an international conference this summer, said two senior administration officials traveling with Bush.
The administration officials added Bush's team is debating whether to go beyond current Middle East policy and state detailed terms for a settlement, including a negotiating schedule for an accord. The schedule would set timelines for discussing the hardest issues, such as Palestinian and Israeli borders, the status of Jerusalem and what to do about Palestinian refugees.
"We would say this issue goes first, then this one and this one," one of the officials said. Less certain are US plans to propose resolution of on those and other sensitive issues, the official said.
However, later in the day US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States was not ready to put forward a peace plan for the Middle East.
"We are not, at this point, prepared to table an American plan with specific deadlines," Powell told a news conference in Italy following a NATO-Russia summit.
Powell added envoy William Burns would travel to the region later in the day and that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George Tenet will probably join him on Friday.
"He will consult with more leaders on a political way forward," Powell said of Burns, an assistant secretary of state for the Middle East.
"He will talk to them about transformation activities taking place within the Palestinian Authority, activities that are being generated from within the Palestinian Authority."
"When we get reports back from Mr. Tenet and from Ambassador Burns... we will start to integrate all this information and see what next steps should be taken," Powell conveyed. (Albawaba.com)
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