Israel won't back use of U.S. peacekeepers

Israel's foreign minister says his country would oppose, for now, having U.S. or other international observers in the Middle East to monitor a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians.

Shimon Peres made his comments on CNN yesterday, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, in a separate interview on NBC, said the United States "is prepared to use monitors when the circumstances permit."
On CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," Mr. Peres said it is useless to send observers unless there is a peace accord. "Before you have observers, what are they going to observe? Namely, you have to have an agreement. If you don't have an agreement, what are observers going to do? What can they do?" the Israeli official asked.
"The first step, before we talk about observers, is really to decide where are the [boundary] lines — who is in charge — and then discuss the possibility of observers," Mr. Peres said.