Middle East
Documents & Texts from America.gov
29 October 2009
United States Pursuing Comprehensive Peace in
Middle East Region
By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington — The issues, opportunities and challenges that the United
States faces in the Middle East are among the most consequential for its security
and interests, says U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman.
“This administration is vigorously pursuing a comprehensive peace in
the region, which we believe is not only in the interests of the parties to
the conflict, but in America’s and in the world’s interests,” Feltman
testified October 28. “The administration recognized from day one that
working to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict is key to fostering stability,
to addressing the security needs of our allies, and to promoting U.S. interests
in the Middle East, South Asia and the broader Muslim world from Morocco all
the way to Indonesia.”
“Achieving a comprehensive peace will be challenging,” Feltman
added.
Feltman, who is the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs,
testified on current U.S. policies and relations in the Middle East to a Foreign
Affairs subcommittee of the House of Representatives.
Progress toward peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict is being made, Feltman
told the legislators, and it requires a patient and steady diplomacy. However,
resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict will not automatically resolve other challenges
in the region, he said.
Regarding Iran, Feltman said the Obama administration is implementing a strategy
of principled engagement. The October 1 meeting in Geneva between the five
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States — plus Germany, a grouping collectively
known as the P5+1, with Iranian officials was a constructive first step, but
it now must be followed by constructive action and tangible steps, he said.
The six nations met with Iranian officials in Geneva in an effort to convince
the Iranian regime to abandon plans to develop a nuclear weapons program. Iran
has tentatively agreed to ship its low-grade uranium to Russia for final refinement
before it would be sent back for use in a research nuclear reactor. The aim
is to prevent Iran from using highly enriched uranium for bomb making while
supporting efforts for civil use of the research reactor for generating electricity.
“We look to Iran to respond quickly and positively to efforts by the
P5+1 and the [International Atomic Energy Agency] to make progress on the commitments
made on October 1 and to build confidence in negotiation,” Feltman said.
Congress has been looking at ways to impose further economic sanctions on
Iran to convince the regime to accept incentives for abandoning nuclear weapons
ambitions. Separately on October 28, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted
out a bill to the full House of Representatives that would impose sanctions
on a broad array of companies involved in providing Iran with refined gasoline
if negotiations fail to resolve the standoff with the Iranian regime over the
nuclear program. The measure, if enacted, could raise the price of gasoline
at the pump and could cripple Iran’s economy.
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee was expected to pass a similar measure October
29. While Iran has enormous oil reserves and exports unrefined oil, it imports
about 40 percent of its refined gasoline because of a lack of refining capacity.
LOOKING ACROSS THE REGION
Feltman said the United States remains committed to Iraq as it faces national
parliamentary elections. At the same time, the United States also will honor
its agreement with the Iraqi government to withdraw its combat forces by August
2010 and all remaining U.S. forces by the end of 2011, he added.
The commitment to Lebanese sovereignty and independence remains firm and will
not be compromised by engagement elsewhere in the region, Feltman added. “Mindful
of Lebanon’s delicate internal situation, we also recognize that there
can be no lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict reached at Lebanon’s
expense,” he said.
“We continue to support the efforts of Prime Minister-designate [Saad]
Hariri to form a government on the basis of Lebanon’s legitimate elections
held last June,” Feltman said. Hariri has been working to create a coalition
government, but he has been hampered by opposition from Hezbollah, a designated
terrorist group.
“The Lebanese people have waited too long for their government to return
to the work of ensuring security, economic development and political dialogue
for all Lebanese citizens,” Feltman said in his prepared testimony. “We
remain extremely troubled about Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon, especially
its maintenance of a vast arsenal of increasingly sophisticated weaponry.”
Feltman said President Obama has also directed “sustained, principled
dialogue” with Syria, but the Syrian regime must understand that the
ability of the United States to engage with it depends on what level of cooperation
it shows in areas of direct concern to the United States, including “respect
for Lebanon’s sovereignty and control of foreign fighters seeking to
enter Iraq.”
The text of Feltman’s
prepared testimony (PDF, 40KB) is available at the House Foreign Affairs
Committee Web page.
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