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America.gov-World Regions: Middle East and North Africa

• Counterterrorism Should Top Obama Security Agenda, Bush Says -

  Preventing terrorists from staging another attack on American soil may be the most urgent security challenge facing President-elect Barack Obama, says President Bush. “I wish him all the best. The stakes are high,” Bush says in his farewell press conference as president.

• Presidential Transition Offers Opportunity to Build Bridges -

  Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, relations with Iran and Pakistan and North Korean nuclear disarmament will dominate the new Obama administration’s early foreign-policy focus. But the global issues of proliferation, climate change and food security will compete for the new president’s attention.

• U.S. Supports Egyptian Mediation Efforts between Israel, Hamas -

  The United States supports Egyptian mediation efforts to end the current crisis between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and also supports a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in the conflict. The Security Council voted January 8 for the cease-fire resolution.

• United States Welcomes Gaza Cease-Fire Proposal -

  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joins Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and members of the Arab League in welcoming a new cease-fire proposal aimed at defusing the conflict between Hamas militants and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

• United States Proposes Three Elements in a Gaza Cease-Fire Plan -

  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is working on three elements of a plan that could lead to a “sustainable, durable cease-fire” between the Israelis and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a State Department spokesman says.