[Christian Science Monitor] Robert Marquand - The Guardian newspaper reported that Israel is close to a White House Middle East peace deal linking a partial freeze on Israeli settlements to sweeping sanctions on Iran. Yet most experts doubt the Obama team is ready to fuse the two crucial policies, particularly in the aftermath of Iranian elections. Mideast expert Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group in Washington, among others, doubts a clear linkage between Iran and Israel in the current Obama plans. "I don't think that Israel and Iran are yet factually related in the White House," Malley says. "The question marks [on an Israeli-Palestinian deal] are as sharp as ever, we aren't anywhere near the heart of the matter. But the Obama people were getting stuck on settlements. It wasn't working, so it looks like they decided to pivot, declare victory, and try to move as far as possible."
2009-08-28 08:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive