Eyes on Clinton for Middle East strategy

Eyes on Clinton for Middle East strategy | smh.com.au

THE US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, arrives in Egypt today in her first foray into Middle East diplomacy, attending a high-level conference on humanitarian assistance to Gaza and making the rounds of Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Mrs Clinton's visit comes at a time when voices on both the right and left say the Middle East peace process needs a dramatically new approach.

The US President, Barack Obama, won praise by appointing a Middle East envoy on the second day of his presidency, indicating a commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The envoy, former senator George Mitchell, is now making his second tour of the region and will meet up with Mrs Clinton at the aid conference, which will be held today in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

But neither Mr Mitchell nor Mrs Clinton appears to have come up with new ideas.

Mrs Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, devoted the final months of his administration to unsuccessfully trying to achieve a peace agreement.

But much has changed since 2001, and the Bush administration's last-minute stab at peace-making, the Annapolis process, also collapsed in failure.

Mrs Clinton will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah, on the West Bank, tomorrow and on Wednesday and every word she utters in the region will be closely watched for clues to the Obama Administration's approach.

Israelis will be listening for how hard she presses for Palestinian governmental reform and an end to corruption, while Palestinians are eager to hear a tougher US stance on Israeli settlement construction in Palestinian territories.

"It would be great to hear an American official say that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law," said Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Institute for Palestinian Studies in Washington.

Big donors are expected to pledge billions of dollars to rebuild the Gaza Strip, but only if the enclave's rulers, Hamas, agree to play no role in spending the cash. Mrs Clinton is expected to commit $US900 million ($1.4 billion).

The donors are demanding the money be handled by the Palestinian Authority, which Hamas evicted by force from the narrow coastal strip in June 2007.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas each want to lead the rebuilding effort, but Western countries - which blacklist Hamas as a terrorist group - have said they will work only with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the authority.