Monday, September 18, 2006

State Dept. adviser: U.S. tying Iran policy to Palestinian issue

"WASHINGTON - The United States is making a connection between efforts to block Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and progress in the diplomatic front between Israel and the Arab world - especially along the Palestinian track.

This was one of the messages in a speech given by Philip Zelikow, a senior adviser to Secretary State Condoleezza Rice, at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday.

In an address that opened the institute's annual conference, Zelikow said that American policy was undergoing changes that have not been sufficiently acknowledged by the international community.

A special adviser to Rice and a consultant on major foreign policy issues, Zelikow gave his address at a time when America is making efforts to convince UN Security Council members of the need to impose sanctions against Iran in order to force it to meet UN demands to freeze its uranium enrichment program.

The senior State Department official explained that the United States must ensure progress in the Israeli-Palestinian track, so that it can preserve a coalition of Arab and European states that are interested in containing Iran and international terrorism.

In the absence of such progress, Zelikow argued, these states will find it difficult to support America in its policies vis-a-vis Iran. Preserving this coalition is also an Israeli interest, he added."

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