22 January 2009
Obama Names Special Envoys for Middle East, Afghanistan-Pakistan
United States will renew leadership through reinvigorated diplomacy
Washington — President Obama joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton January 22 to announce former Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy to the Middle East peace process and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as his special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan — moves that underscore the new administration’s commitment to renewing America’s leadership through reinvigorated diplomacy.
“We are confronted by extraordinary, complex and interconnected global challenges,” Obama said at the State Department. “Progress will not come quickly or easily, nor can we promise to right every single wrong around the world. But we can pledge to use all elements of American power to protect our people and to promote our interests and ideals, starting with principled, focused and sustained American diplomacy.”
“The president is committed to making diplomacy and development the partners in our foreign policy along with defense. And we must be smarter about how we exercise our power,” Clinton said. “Today, we start the hard work to restore our standing and enable our country to meet the vexing new challenges of the 21st century.”
MIDEAST PEACE DEMANDS MAXIMUM EFFORT
“The pursuit of peace is so important that it demands our maximum effort no matter the difficulties, no matter the setbacks,” Mitchell said. “Danger and difficulty cannot cause the United States to turn away.”
A former Senate Democratic leader from Maine, Mitchell is best known for brokering a peace between Roman Catholics and Protestants after 800 years of conflict in Northern Ireland under the 1998 Good Friday Accord. Mitchell also brought his experiences in Northern Ireland to a commission of experts studying escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence. The report that resulted in 2001 was dubbed “the Mitchell Report.”
“There is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended. Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings. I saw it happen in Northern Ireland, although, admittedly, it took a very long time,” Mitchell said. “I believe deeply that with committed, persevering and patient diplomacy it can happen in the Middle East.”
The United States will “actively and aggressively” seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Israel and its Arab neighbors, Obama said, starting with a “durable and sustainable” cease-fire in the Gaza Strip following a three-week Israeli offensive aimed at stopping rocket attacks on Israeli communities.
“No democracy can tolerate such danger to its people, nor should the international community, and neither should the Palestinian people themselves, whose interests are only set back by acts of terror,” Obama said. “The outline for a durable cease-fire is clear: Hamas must end its rocket fire. Israel will complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza.”
Obama called for an opening of Gaza’s border crossings and extended American support for an international donors’ conference to bring much-needed humanitarian aid and reconstruction to Gaza, and economic opportunities to all Palestinians. “Just as the terror of rocket fire aimed at innocent Israelis is intolerable, so too is a future without hope for the Palestinians,” Obama said. “We must extend a hand of opportunity to those who seek peace.”
CHALLENGES IN AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN
Ambassador Holbrooke, a former U.S. representative to the United Nations who also negotiated the Dayton Accords to end the 1992–1995 Balkan Wars, will face profound challenges unraveling the complex security and development issues facing Afghanistan and Pakistan, which Obama called “the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.”
“There is no answer in Afghanistan that does not confront the al-Qaida and Taliban bases along the border,” Obama said. “And there will be no lasting peace unless we expand spheres of opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
Helping Afghans rebuild their country will require much more than military forces, Holbrooke said, pledging to bring aid programs and other resources from across the U.S. government and channel them more effectively to meet the needs of communities on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border. “If our resources are mobilized and coordinated and pulled together, we can quadruple, quintuple, multiply by tenfold the effectiveness of our efforts there.”
Refocusing on Afghanistan will also mean asking more of friends and allies, Obama said, to help a struggling Afghan government deliver services to its citizens, confront a growing insurgency and a booming trade in opium, and bring al-Qaida terrorists to justice.
“Let there be no doubt about America’s commitment to lead,” Obama said. “We can no longer afford drift, and we can no longer afford delay, nor can we cede ground to those who seek destruction.”
