World Middle East Peace Initiative

Excitement fills the airwaves and made headline news as US president Barack Obama Middle East peace initiative seems to offer new hope to two beleaguered people. Since he was inaugurated as US president in January he made an effort to put the Israeli Palestinians issue at the top of his to do list thus igniting new hope into a seemingly stalled process. Its been widely reported that the president is close to brokering a Israeli-Palestinian deal that will allow him to announce a resumption of the long-stalled Middle East peace talks before the end of September, according to a wide range of official news sources in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

With Israeli hard line Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visiting Britain this week and the issue of the Scottish release of Libyan Lockerbie bomber there is little space for more dramatic headlines, or is there? Are we not all appalled with the regular atrocities of suicide bombers in Israel for the sake of land? What role then is Britain playing in bringing about lasting peace in that troubled region? While many in Britain have been voicing their concerns about the rights and wrongs of the terrorist release, different parts of the world are concerned with something closer to home. For instance in Greece the wild fires ravaging the landscape are a pressing concern to them and in Russia the return of their sailors and the pirated ship was at the top of their agenda.

However, does that mean we are not all together responsible for bringing about some kind of lasting settlement that is acceptable to all in that region of long lasting conflict? Because the lack of peace anywhere, there is a lack of peace everywhere. We are all interrelated and linked by a common thread, our humanity! All peoples share a common dream to live peaceable and safe within our own borders, and to raise our family with dignity. I am of no doubt that the Israeli and Palestinian peoples share that same dream unique to the human race. However it t will take a monumental effort from influential states and personalities within and outside those states, people shifting their firmly held positions and beliefs to make it happen.

What seems to be key in bringing the two nations closer, and especially getting Israel to talk is a promise by the US president to take a much tougher line with nuclear ambitious Iran and its hard line leader who calls for the total destruction of the Jewish state. The US, Britain and France, are have plans to urge the United Nations security council to exact stiffer sanctions on Iran which would include its oil and gas industry, a move that could cripple the nations economy.

Binyamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government would in turn be expected to agree a halt on the construction of settlements in the occupied territories. Sources say the finer details of the breakthrough deal will be hammered out here in London, where the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is holding talks with the US special envoy, George Mitchell. Mr. Netanyahu met Gordon Brown in Downing Street, where the two heads of state discussed both settlements and the Iranian nuclear issue.

Its been reported the discussions are so advanced that the US president is set to make the announcement of the breakthrough deal for either a meeting of world leaders at the UN general assembly in New York in the week beginning 23 September or the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on 24-25 September. The announcement will be made with Netanyahu and the Palestinian leader, Mahmud Abbas accompanied by other Arabic leaders. The hope is that a final peace agreement can be negotiated within two years, a timetable viewed as unrealistic by Middle East analysts. It is reported that the US had hoped to unveil the plans before the start of Ramadan last week but they failed to complete the deal with the Israelis or the Arab states in time.

The US brokered deal would call on Israel to offer a temporary or partial moratorium on the expansion of settlements on the West Bank. Other powerful big playing Arabic states would reciprocate the gesture by normalization of relations with the Jewish state. On top of a hard line approach to Iran, a key demand of Israel, Obama would announce talks on the bigger Israeli, Palestinian issues, concerning borders, the future of Jerusalem and the future of Palestinian refugees, the US acting as mediator.

After the London meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was hopeful that a compromise would be reached to allow the peace process to restart while Israeli settlers could "continue living normal lives". Prime Minister Brown was more optimistic about the peace talks, promising that if there were no early development on the Iranian nuclear stalemate, further sanctions would be given priority. Sources involved with the negotiations confirmed that if Iran does not respond to UN demands to stop enriching uranium by time of the UN and G20 summits, the US, Britain and France are to lead a UN security council push to expand sanctions, which are expected to target Iran's dependence on imports of refined petroleum products and its reliance on foreign technology to develop its oil and gas industry.

On the other hand Iran’s long standing supporters in Russia and China are expected to object to the severe actions, and any western attempt to enforce a partial embargo threatens to breach the broad international consensus on handling the Iranian regime. A report on the Iranian programme by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), due to be published by the end of this week, will be crucial in setting the scene for such endorsements. The outgoing IAEA director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has come under strong pressure from western states to make the report sharply critical of the Iranian state. However, the Jewish state wants more than tougher line over Iran but normalization of relations with Arab states, including over flight rights for its airline El Al, the establishment of trade offices and embassies Arabic countries, and an end to the ban on travelers with Israeli stamps in their passports.

But Israel will have a hard time convincing countries like Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have so far only cautiously agreed. Saudi Arabia a usually more moderate state has refused this request, saying Israel has had enough concessions. However, the US is taking comfort from the fact that, significantly, Saudi Arabia has not tried to block other Arab states from signing up to the agreement. A European official is said to have remarked, "They may come on board last, but they will come on board". If the threat posed to Israel is real then other moderate Arab states have a lot to fear from this tyrannical regime and it would be in their interest to work with Israel for peace and to see of any immanent threat. Barak Obama, would have succeeded where countless before him has failed to bring about lasting peace to a troubled region.