CNN - Clinton tries to repair damaged peace efforts

Summit will give Clinton the chance to repair damaged peace efforts

March 12, 1996
Web posted at: 12:05 a.m. EST (0505 GMT)
From Correspondent Jill Dougherty
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At the Mideast summit on terrorism in Egypt Wednesday, U.S. President Bill Clinton will try to wrap himself once again in the mantle of "peacemaker" -- even as the peace he helped foster is now in tatters.

"I will go to Egypt to try to advance that cause and beat back the terrorism that threatens it today," Clinton said Monday.

Not so long ago, the startling handshakes among former enemies were the dominant image, one that Clinton trumpeted:

"Our country has been the world's leading force for peace and freedom," he said. "As we are today, every place from Bosnia to the Middle East to Northern Ireland." (93K AIFF sound or 93K WAV sound)
Now, after the spate of bombings against Israel by militant Palestinians, aides acknowledge, the president's prestige is on the line. He's hoping the sight of more than 30 leaders standing shoulder to shoulder against terrorism will send a powerful message.

The summit also is aimed at putting stronger pressure on Yasser Arafat to do more to curb the activity of Hamas, and provide him with the intelligence and security resources to do that.

Finally, organizers hope to pressure European nations -- especially France and Germany -- to curtail business dealings with Iran, which the U.S. accuses of supporting terrorism.

Even as President Clinton tries to revive the Mideast peace process, some U.S. observers foresee other potential minefields for the Clinton international policy:

A Russian election that goes to hardline communists
A crisis erupting from threatening moves toward Taiwan by China in the straits that separate them
A collapse in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations
An unraveling of the NATO mission in Bosnia...

If anything goes wrong there, say some observers, it could spell trouble for Clinton in the November election.

"These are the sorts of nightmares that a president whose primary strength is domestic policies has to worry about," said Geoffrey Kemp of the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, "and these are exactly the sorts of events Mr. Dole will have to jump upon if they happen." (186K AIFF sound or 186K WAV sound)
But Clinton's supporters predict voters will not judge the president on international challenges alone.

"He will not be blamed for crisis," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut), "because after all these crises are not of his doing." (178K AIFF sound or 178K WAV sound)
Clinton aides say that in spite of the setbacks, almost all of these international hot spots are in better shape than they were before the president took office. And in the post- cold-war world, they argue, there are no longer any problems you simply solve -- and walk away from.

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Summit will give Clinton the chance to repair damaged peace efforts

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