Policy Analysis

Keynote address by Dennis Ross. With David Makovsky, Mahdi F. Abdul Hadi, Colette Avital, Yuval Steinitz, Thomas Donilon, and Paul Wolfowitz.

I am appearing here tonight at what can only be described as an interesting time. There has been an election in Israel and there is a new prime minister, Ehud Barak, who won with a remarkable mandate. It is fair to say that the Israeli electorate perceived that the country

American and Libyan diplomats are slated to meet tomorrow at the United Nations in what will be the first face-to-face discussions in more than a decade. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss whether sanctions against Libya, which are currently suspended, should be permanently lifted. However this issue is

Dr. Adnan Pacachi, former Iraqi foreign minister and United Nations (UN) representative: The Iraqi opposition represents the yearnings and aspirations of Iraqis, who after years of oppression and dictatorship want a democratic and pluralistic government that protects the human rights of all its citizens. Saddam Husayn led Iraq into two

For more than a year, Palestinian leaders have advanced the original partition resolution -- United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947 -- as the cornerstone of their diplomatic effort to gain international support for independent statehood. Whereas this was originally a tactic adopted to confront the policies of

Arab Middle Eastern reactions to the Kosovo conflict can be described as a deafening quiet. Arabs are generally distraught by the plight of the ethnic Albanian Kosovars and tend to blame Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for their suffering. Many Arabs feel that the Kosovars are not pious Muslims, however, so

Turkmenistan president Saparmurad Niyazov today signed an agreement with Turkey's energy and natural resources minister, Ziya Aktash, to supply Turkmen natural gas to Turkey via a trans-Caspian pipeline. Later this month, work will begin on a much-delayed oil pipeline to carry oil from fields operated by a Chevron-led consortium in

Campaign: Israel's elections were primarily a referendum on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhahu's leadership, and the verdict was clear: "Anybody but Netanyahu." This was also the sentiment during the campaign, especially when the three prime ministerial candidates (Yitzhak Mordechai, Ze'ev "Benny" Begin, and Azmi Bishara) from the three smaller parties dropped

Optimism About the Peace Process, Post-Netanyahu "The powers of rationalism which want to put an end to extremism and violence have triumphed. . . . This is a message from the majority of the Israeli public to Barak that it wants to close the chapter of conflict with the Palestinians

After three years of a foreign policy that found Israel increasingly isolated, Ehud Barak's landslide victory in Israel's elections Monday should inaugurate a new "era of good feelings" between Israelis, Americans and Arabs. But once the honeymoon wears off, Israel's negotiating partners shouldn't expect Mr. Barak to make substantive concessions

Sighs of relief sound the same regardless of their underlying meaning. It is therefore, easy to gloss over the distinctions among those hailing Ehud Barak's landslide victory over Benjamin Netanyahu in Monday's Israeli elections, and to focus on the common aspects of relief heard in the sighs: A long divisive

Iraqi president Saddam Husayn is undoubtedly watching events in the Balkans quite closely. Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's continued defiance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) proves that the Western alliance continues to misunderstand dictators. Milosevic, like Saddam, does not care about his people but only about his own power

Lebanon: The problem of greatest concern for an Israeli defense minister is southern Lebanon. Dealing with the problem effectively requires correctly identifying it: Syria is waging a proxy war against Israel through Hizballah. It is inappropriate to regard Lebanon as a sovereign state independent of Syrian control or to view

Yesterday, Prince Sultan, the Saudi second deputy prime minister and minister of defense and civil aviation, left Tehran after meetings with senior Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah 'Ali Khamene'i, President Muhammad Khatami, and Defense Minister 'Ali Shamkhani. The talks centered on ways to increase regional stability, the signing of a civil

Palestinian Authority chairman Yasir Arafat's decision to postpone a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from the long-threatened May 4 deadline is due in no small part to his intense interest in the upcoming Israeli elections. He and his closest advisers, with the encouragement of Egyptian and Jordanian leaders among others

Israel and the Palestinians will soon begin fateful negotiations for a "final status" agreement to resolve the core issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. for Israel, these negotiations will determine the size and character of the state (whether it remains a Jewish state or becomes a binational state)

Pleased with his decision to throw in Turkey's lot with the winning U.S.-led coalition against Saddam Hussein, Turkish President Turgut Ozal declared at a 1991 post-Gulf War press conference that Turkey "should leave its former passive and hesitant policies and engage in an active foreign policy."1 Ozal's decision to back

On April 27, 1999, Turkish president Suleyman Demirel addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. The following are excerpts from his comments during the forum's question-and-answer session. Read his opening remarks. On Turkey's Recent Elections "The important question is whether the elections have been free and fair. And they were

Palestinian Statehood: "Arafat knows that if he declares the establishment of a Palestinian state unilaterally, it will mean the annulment of the Oslo accords." ---Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaking to the Likud Central Committee at Tel Aviv's Cinerama Hall, broadcast on Israel Television's Channel 1 Network on December 27, 1998

On April 27, 1999, Turkish president Suleyman Demirel addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Following is the full text of his opening remarks, as prepared for delivery. Read excerpts from his comments during the forum's question-and-answer session. Distinguished guests, It is a great pleasure for me to address such