: EU ready to take hard line on Israel
: Special report: Israel and the Middle East

Not sure how this ties in, but here's another piece of the puzzle:

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Tuesday April 24 7:36 AM ET
Carter Says Wrong Time for Mideast Talks

By Ghaida Ghantous

DUBAI (Reuters) - Former President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday called on the new administration to adopt a ``more balanced'' stand in the Middle East peace process.

``I hope the Bush administration will take a more balanced position in negotiating peace agreements in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and Syria,'' Carter said without elaborating during a trip to the United Arab Emirates to receive an environment award.

Many Arab states have been angered by what they see as blind U.S. support for the Jewish state during the current Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Carter, a Democrat, also told reporters in Dubai that Republican President Bush's administration felt direct talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat were ``not timely.''

``The mediator cannot perform its duty unless both the antagonist sides are prepared to participate...and that point has not been reached yet,'' Carter said, adding that both sides must take concrete steps to end the violence before resuming stalled peace negotiations.

At least 385 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 74 other Israelis have been killed in the uprising that erupted in September.

Carter also said it was time for Washington to draft a new policy to bring peace to the war-torn African nation of Sudan.

``For the last eight years, the U.S. has had a policy which I strongly disagree with in Sudan, supporting the revolutionary movement and not working for an overall peace settlement,'' he said.

``My hope is that the new administration in Washington...will be working now toward a reconciliation with the Khartoum government and the revolutionary forces in the south.''

The 18-year-old civil war in Sudan pits the Muslim Arab government in Khartoum against non-Muslim black African southerners who want greater autonomy.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers last week called on Bush to name a special peace envoy to Sudan and said the United States must make ending the civil war a top priority.

Carter, who was U.S. president from 1977 to 1981, brought Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David for grueling negotiations that resulted in a landmark peace accord between the two countries in 1979.

The former president said the Carter Center, an organization he founded to promote peace and human rights, was willing to help the Bush administration select a Sudan peace envoy.

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