Obama looks ahead to peace in Mideast

August 31, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Firmly and finally ending the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, President Barack Obama will have but a moment before trying to hasten peace nearby between Israelis and Palestinians. Left unclear is whether winding down the war that inflamed Arab passions will do anything to help long-shot Mideast talks.

From the Oval Office, a setting designed to command gravity and attention, Obama will declare tonight that Iraqis are now the ones in charge of a war he had opposed. Within hours Wednesday, he will be immersed in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, underscoring the hopeful but precarious U.S. role as a middleman.

The White House is framing the two events as commitments kept by the president. But there is little excitement and certainly no bold promises that capping the combat mission in Iraq will prod broader peace in the Middle East.

Tonight, Obama’s emphasis will be to thank the troops and explain why the fight goes on in Afghanistan and beyond — and not so much about the potential for Iraq to be “a beacon of liberty in the Middle East” as President George W. Bush put it.

In a narrow sense, the peace talks convened by the White House have little to do with Iraq. The Middle East stalemate has to do with the borders of a potential Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, the security of Israel — and trust on both sides. Making progress on those points, not the Iraq war, is at the core of renewed talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Writ large, however, the fate of Iraq indeed is tied to prospects for peace for its neighbors in the region.