“India can play a big and positive role in our region,” said a senior aide to President Abbas in Ramallah. “Indian troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is a very good and welcome idea. India has always had good relations with both Israel and Palestine.” India, he added, also has an interest in boosting moderate Muslims in the face of radical Islamic groups like Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda. “Islamic fundamentalism is spreading and threatening all secular democracies.”

Arab political analysts appear divided on Bush’s initiative. While some have welcomed the conference as evidence that Washington is finally getting serious about reviving the peace process, others fear that Bush is trying to form an Arab alliance ahead of an attack on Iran.

Kuwait’s influential al-Seyassah newspaper said it seems that Bush may have finally gone to the source of terrorism by calling for an international conference to revive the Middle East peace process. The paper wrote that while Bush’s initiative came late, it still shows the US president has put his finger on the causes of terrorism — the Palestinian cause that has been used by liberation and terrorism groups. “It’s time for US policy to be based on understanding that fighting the war on terror without addressing its causes will only escalate the terrorist activities and sink Washington deeper into military and political quagmires,” the paper added.

Resolving the Palestinian issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict is the only way to “dry up the source of terror and thereby eliminating it,” it said. The paper suggested that after resolving the conflict, the UN should form a global army to assume the war on terror and to have the right to operate in every country. “It would be in President Bush’s favour to crown the end of his term by achieving a historic solution to the Palestinian problem...” it remarked. The Kuwaiti paper said the US president should ultimately be convinced that it is the Palestinian cause that has been the driving force and excuse used by terrorists to justify killing Americans.

... contd.