Merkel to press Bush on search for Mideast peace
BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will make a quick visit to Washington on Thursday and appeal to President George W. Bush to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, according to German government officials.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who took over the presidencies of the European Union and the Group of 8 industrialized countries on Monday, will make a quick visit to Washington on Thursday and appeal to President George W. Bush to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, according to German government officials.
Merkel's appeal to Bush — with whom she has a close working relationship — to start playing a serious diplomatic and political role in the conflict reflects a consensus inside her coalition government of conservatives and Social Democrats that Germany's attempts to revive the peace process will get nowhere without U.S engagement.
Merkel and her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, had said that once they took the helm of the EU presidency, they wanted to reinvigorate the Middle East "quartet" consisting of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. During a visit to Moscow last month, Steinmeier and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, agreed to push the quartet back into the political limelight.
Berlin, Paris and London hold the view that Washington has marginalized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and the quartet — because Bush has been preoccupied with the war in Iraq. Merkel and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain have repeatedly said in recent speeches that unless the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is tackled, the chances of lasting peace in the Middle East are low.
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