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No Crisis Expected in Obama-Netanyahu Talks

[AFP] Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told AFP: "There is no reason, need...for a fight." Neither side wants a breakdown in trust that would flow from a major crisis. At this point, Miller said, he has also seen no sign of a "fully-formed" Obama administration strategy to deal with either Iran or the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. "They don't have their ducks in line," he said. For example, he said, there is no sign that the administration is promoting a quid pro quo in which the Netanyahu government endorses a two-state solution and the Arabs begin taking steps to normalize ties with Israel. Elliot Abrams, a former deputy national security adviser in the administration of George W. Bush, wondered aloud whether President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt might agree with Netanyahu that priority be given to dealing with Iran. Egypt, Abrams said, is increasingly alarmed at the "subversive" role played by non-Arab, Shiite Muslim Iran in mainly Sunni Muslim Arab countries. He added: "I don't see a clash mostly because I don't think it's in the interests of either side to have one. Even where there are disagreements, some of these will be postponed, some of them will be covered over."
2009-05-15 06:00:00
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