Peace process 'must be rebuilt'

Retired U.S. Army General Wayne Downing said yesterday that the events of the past weeks had wasted 25 years of hard work to bring peace to the Middle East.
Both sides have lost confidence and all that is needed now is to wait until things cool down to take confidence building measures to pick up the pieces and put the peace process on track.
"The need of the hour is trust. Without trust it is not possible to go far in the peace track," said Downing, who was the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command and commanded a joint special operations task force operating deep behind Iraqi lines during the Gulf war - Operation Desert Storm.
He was in Bahrain to attend the Middle East Industrial Security Conference and Exhibition on behalf of Science Applications International Corp of the U.S. which is setting up an industrial security training academy in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Speaking to the press about the situation in the region, Downing said, "As everyone knows, the Palestine-Israel issue is a very complex one. Both Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak may have been pushed too hard and too far by the U.S. during the July peace talks to agree on a formula for which they did not have the support of their respective constituencies."
Dealing with the controversy of sovereignty over Jerusalem, Downing said, "Jerusalem is the holy city for the people of all three religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism - and thus all should have free and frequent access to this city.
"I have friends on both sides - Arabs and Jews - and I am quite aware of their feelings and the need of the hour is a 'balanced approach' to ensure the success of the Middle East peace process as mere words are not going to serve any purpose," said Downing, who emphasised the need for compromise on the part of both sides in this regard.
Asked why Saddam Hussein was not wiped out during the Gulf War to eliminate the source of instability in the region and free the Iraqi people and the region he said, "Coalition members didn't support such an idea at that time.
On the other hand, Operation Desert Storm was to liberate Kuwait and the wisdom of all then was that Saddam would crumble and fall on his own once politically crushed."
Elaborating on the proposed industrial security training academy in Saudi Arabia, he said it would be called Asset Protection Academy and would be built at a cost of $ 2.5 million to provide training to the people of all nationalities in fighting terrorism.