Memo: Powell bans use
of term 'peace process'

Bush policy to broaden focus
beyond Israel-Palestinian talks

WASHINGTON — President George Bush said his administration is prepared to renew peace efforts in the Middle East, but early reports indicate a fundamental change in direction.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has formulated a Bush Middle East policy that does not see Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts as the overriding U.S. goal, officials said. They said Powell wants to provide equal importance to promoting U.S. relations with Egypt, Gulf Arabs, Jordan and Syria, Middle East Newsline reported.

Powell has ordered U.S. diplomats in the Middle East to stop referring to the stalled negotiations between Arabs and Israelis as the "peace process." The new term, Powell said in a memo, is "negotiations for peace" or "movement towards peace."

"This is because we are not concerned so much with the process, but the outcome — peace," the State Department memo said. "Please try to remove 'peace process' from your lexicon, and, instead, use one of these more accurate phrases, or something equally imaginative."

Powell has also abolished the office of the Special Middle East Coordinator in the State Department. The office was headed by Dennis Ross.

Bush said the election of Likud chairman Ariel Sharon as Israel's new prime minister could be the launching point of new peace efforts. The president said the United States would allow Sharon to form a new government and encourage the Labor Party to join the coalition.

But officials said the administration has linked any such peace efforts to an end of Israeli-Palestinian violence. They said this message has been relayed to both Israel and the Palestinians.

"We will continue to reach out to the parties in that region to promote an environment of stability and calm, to give the Sharon government a chance to do what he said he was going to do," Bush said, "which was to try to form a unity government and reach out to the parties to promote peace in the region."

Bush telephoned Israeli President Moshe Katsav and said Secretary of State Colin Powell would soon be sent to the Middle East. The tour is expected to begin at the end of the month.

U.S. analysts said a key question regards Israel's view of the Palestinian Authority under a Sharon administration. In 1982, Sharon drove Arafat and his Fatah fighters out of southern Lebanon.

"For a U.S. administration, the most urgent question will be: Does Sharon view Gaza/Ramallah in 2001 to be the latter-day equivalent of Beirut in 1982?" asked Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "That is, does Sharon consider that the Palestinian Authority is Fatahland, a terrorist lair that needs to be destroyed. Or alternatively, does he believe that the PA needs taming, reining in, fixing, perhaps even pacifying, but not destroying?"