Carter Urges U.S. on Mideast Peace Push. Former President Carter Urges Bush to Push Harder, Be Evenhanded in U.S. Push for Mideast Peace,
ABC News, September 15, 2003
"The Bush administration must push harder and be evenhanded to revive sagging peace hopes in the Middle East, former President Carter said Monday. In an Associated Press interview 25 years after the Camp David accords, Carter said Israel and the Palestinians had not only abandoned the U.S.-backed road map for peace but had violated it Israel by threatening the "removal" of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He suggested the Bush administration was tilted toward Israel. "At this point, prospects are dismal," Carter said. "The U.S. does not seem to be making any strong effort to implement" the road map outlined by President Bush, and the other parties to the blueprint the United Nations, the European Union and Russia are not very involved, he said ... "The United States is not being evenhanded," Carter said by telephone from his home in Plains, Ga. "You have to have a mediator, willing to negotiate freely with both sides, and equally firmly with both sides"... Israel's official decision to "remove" Arafat, which Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggested Sunday might mean killing, exile or isolation, also drew strong criticism from Carter. "It just sends a wave of increasing animosity not only through the Palestinians but the entire world," he said. "That statement and others are totally contrary to the position of the U.S. government, as well. The road map is supposed to preclude exile." |
