AMERICAN LEBANESE COORDINATION COUNCIL

U.S. President George Bush on Tuesday said he was still hopeful of a Middle East peace deal before the end of his term in January but warned that Hamas could “undermine” the effort.
In a White House press conference, Bush acknowledged that achieving peace was an uphill task but said he was “still hopeful we will get an agreement by the end of my presidency” in January 2009 on establishing a Palestinian state.

Bush took Syria and Hizbullah to task, saying they were meddling in Lebanon’s internal politics.

“Here’s a struggling democracy in the heart of the Middle East whose internal politics are being influenced by Syria, Hizbullah, as a result of Iranian influence with Hizbullah, all aiming to destabilize the country, which should be a clear signal about the intentions of groups like Hizbullah and Hamas,” Bush told the news conference.

Backed by Syria and Iran, Hizbullah considers Prime Minister Fouad Saniora’s government to be illegitimate and pulled its two ministers from the cabinet in November 2006.

Bush said he had spoken to Saniora by telephone Tuesday and was also in touch with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also shortly heading back to the region to continue peace efforts.

“The attitude is good, people do understand the importance of getting a state defined,” Bush said of his vision for a Palestinian state.

He said during his Middle East mission, he would try to forge common ground between the Israelis and Abbas on achieving the two state solution.

Bush, who formally restarted Mideast peace negotiations in November last year after a seven-year freeze, will visit Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt from May 13 to 18.

“It’s going to be difficult but it’s even made more difficult by entities like Hamas who insist upon lobbing rockets into Israel, trying to provoke response and trying to destabilize — even destabilize the region more,” the U.S. leader said.

“They’re the ones who are undermining peace.”

The United States consider Hamas a terror group despite its victory in 2006 Palestinian elections that led to its seizing of power in the Gaza Strip.

Since the power grab, Israel has sealed the territory off from all but vital humanitarian aid and carried out near-daily strikes in a bid to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on nearby Israeli communities.

Bush charged that Hamas was pursuing “the destruction of Israel” and also attempting to “create enough violence to stop the advance of the two-party state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The United States, he said, did not want to negotiate with Hamas because “they are a significant problem” to Middle East peace.

Bush said Hamas was also trying “to stop the advance of liberty” in the region with assistance from U.S. archrivals Syria and Iran.

“Unfortunately, they’re getting help. In Syria they get help. There’s rumors about Iranian help,” Bush said.

Bush said his decision to brief members of Congress on an Israeli attack on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility was meant as a “message” to North Korea and Iran.

U.S. national security officials briefed U.S. members of Congress last week, presenting intelligence they said showed Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor for military ends.

Bush said the briefing was intended to advance “certain policy objectives.”

“One would be to the North Koreans, to make it abundantly clear that we know more about them than they think,” he said.

“Then we have an interest in sending a message to Iran and the world, for that matter, about just how destabilizing nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East.

Bush also rejected he would not draw down the U.S. strategic oil reserve, saying the action would not affect prices.

“If I thought it would affect the price of oil positively, I would seriously consider it, but when you are talking about one-tenth of one percent of global demand, in the cost-benefit analysis, you do not get any benefits and I think it costs you oil in the case of a national security risk,” Bush said.

His comments came as oil futures hovered near record levels near 120 dollars a barrel.(AFP-Naharnet)