Clinton predicts new Mideast peace plan after elections

LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton believes a new initiative to bring peace to the Middle East could emerge in the next two months.

In an interview with the Financial Times, published on Wednesday, Clinton said unrest in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon had set the scene for "some kind of positive movement to take place." He stressed, however, that he had no insider knowledge on the situation.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said that any legislation on interrogating terrorism suspects must preserve our intelligence programs and must protect classified information from terrorists. (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

Clinton told the British newspaper: "All these bad news stories have created a sense that if we don't want further disintegration to occur then we had better come up with a strategy that goes forward in creating a new sense of order that enables everybody to live together.

"I'm not sure you won't see some positive things come out of the Middle East in the next 60 days."

He said it was time to work out how to end the bloodshed, warning that otherwise the world was left with three choices.

"We can say: 'We know who our adversaries are and we can accelerate the confrontation, or we can kick the can down the road and hope the underlying realities change, or we can try to rearrange the pieces and players and try to put a puzzle together'.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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