Analysis: US back in Mid-East struggle

Special envoy William Burns: Hoping to negotiate a ceasefire

By Paul Wood in Jerusalem

George W Bush came to office determined to be a domestic president but his administration is already knee deep in the mire of Middle East diplomacy.

The CIA has returned to attempts to broker security contacts between the two sides and Mr Bush himself has been on the telephone trying to persuade the two leaders to implement the Mitchell report.

Despite Mr Bush's campaign rhetoric, American disengagement was never a realistic option

His new US special envoy in the Middle East, William Burns, has now met both Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Special relationship

This is not yet the micro management of the crisis in which President Clinton engaged and there is one other crucial difference - President Clinton was pushing for an ambitious final settlement, President Bush is trying to achieve the much more limited goal of a ceasefire.

Despite Mr Bush's campaign rhetoric, American disengagement was never a realistic option.

The United States has, since Israel's birth, been the ultimate guarantor of the Jewish state's security.

There was no more potent symbol of this close relationship than the Israeli air raid against Palestinian targets using F-16 war planes made and supplied by the United States.

Oil-rich region

But the Palestinian police officers killed in that raid, members of Yasser Arafat's elite personal guard, 417, had been equipped and trained by the CIA - a sign of the depth of American involvement in the conflict.

The US wants to keep the oil-rich region at peace

President Clinton said his foreign policy was based on the policy of humanitarian intervention. President Bush came to office promising that American power should be used only in the pursuit of the American national interest.

The US has a vital interest in seeing peace and stability in a wider region which produces most of the world's oil and the last remaining global superpower could not hope to stand aside if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict degenerates into a bigger, Middle Eastern war.