US Religious Leaders Call for Comprehensive Peace in Middle East

The leaders of 29 Christian, Jewish and Muslim organisations in the US have issued a joint call to the Bush administration and the new Congress to make peace Arab-Israeli-Palestinian peace a top foreign policy priority, reports Catholic newspaper The Universe.

The leaders appealed to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier in the week to meet with them to discuss the "urgent situation" in the Middle East and the need for "active, fair and firm leadership by the United States" to promote a comprehensive peace in the region.

The leaders have united on the issue, saying that peace is "an essential of faith" in all three religious traditions.

In a joint statement and separate letter to Rice earlier this week, the leaders were hopeful for a positive outcome, saying that the current crisis could actually be an opportunity for change and that the current Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire offers hope for restarting negotiations.

"The crisis in Gaza and the war in Lebanon and northern Israel remind us that the status quo in the region is unstable and untenable," they said in the seven-page statement. "Military action will not resolve the conflict."