US Impotent Towards Israel - Newspaper

The official newspaper Tishreen criticised Washington following the latest talks between the United States peace envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, and Israeli officials.



Omar Jaftali said in an August 29 op-ed article in the daily that the US was clearly retracting from previous positions regarding peace in the region.



The columnist urged the US administration to declare clearly its incapability of imposing any peace demands on Israel so as not to keep the Arab world under the illusion of the promises made by President Barack Obama earlier this year in Cairo.



Syrian columnists have repeatedly criticised US officials for failing to get the approval of Israel to freeze the building of settlements as a prerequisite for the start of any peace negotiations.



An August 25 opinion article in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan warned that if Washington failed to achieve peace in the region soon, the consequences would be dire.



The columnist, Marwan Qabalan, said that the credibility of US peace envoys would be at stake if the Americans continued to fail in twisting the arms of the Israeli government.



The columnist warned that a dead end in peace efforts could lead this time to an eruption of war in the region, arguing that the no-war no-peace situation could not go on forever because the different regional players had overlapping interests.