More updates on the peace process, as it stands frozen as the settlement freeze is lifted. It will be interesting to see how or if man can get this off high center…
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Palestinians Back Abbas on Settlement Slowdown
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Dozens of senior Palestinians on Saturday backed President Mahmoud Abbas’ refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as it builds in West Bank settlements, dealing a new setback to troubled U.S. efforts to salvage peace talks.
Israel refuses to extend a 10-month-old curb on settlement construction, while Abbas says there is no point in negotiating as long as settlements eat up more of the land the Palestinians want for a future state.
The Obama administration has said it will keep pushing to find a solution to the impasse, and U.S. envoy George Mitchell is now scrambling to enlist the help of Arab leaders to rescue the negotiations. The Palestinians’ final decision on whether to quit the talks is expected at an Arab League summit next weekend.
However, Saturday’s unanimous decision by dozens of senior members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Abbas’ Fatah movement makes compromise increasingly unlikely. “The Palestinian position is clear,” senior Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said after the three-hour meeting at Abbas’ headquarters. “There will be no negotiations as long as settlement building continues.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is equally adamant about not extending the curb on settlement construction, and reiterated as recently as Friday that he would not budge. On Saturday, he urged Abbas not to quit the talks.
The Palestinian stance appears puzzling at first glance.
President Barack Obama is seen by many here as more evenhanded in handling the Mideast conflict than his predecessors, and he has promised to push for a deal on Palestinian statehood within a year. Ostensibly, the Palestinians are risking the big prize — statehood — for the lesser goal of a settlement freeze during negotiations.
However, Palestinians deeply mistrust Netanyahu, a longtime hard-liner, and consider his refusal to halt settlements as proof of his true intentions. Veteran negotiators say they deeply regret not having insisted on a settlement freeze when talks first began 17 years ago; since then the number of Israelis moving to war-won lands claimed by the Palestinians has tripled, to half a million.
Palestinians also question how the U.S. expects to broker agreement on such charged issues as the partition of Jerusalem if it can’t get Israel to comply with an internationally mandated settlement freeze.
“The Americans didn’t exercise any kind of pressure on the Israelis,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO member who participated in Saturday’s meeting. “The Israelis hijacked the process. He (Netanyahu) thumbed his nose at the Americans.”
Officials in Netanyahu’s office declined comment Saturday. However, the prime minister has said he is serious about reaching a deal within a year and has accused the Palestinians of wasting precious time over secondary issues.
Israel’s main opposition party, Kadima, called on Netanyahu on Saturday to make decisions that will enable the talks to continue. “The breakup of the talks will have severe implications for Israel,” Kadima said in a statement. “Netanyahu must choose the true long-term interests of Israel over any personal political interests.”
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a centrist, said he hoped a compromise could be found in the coming week.
Palestinian leaders will now begin to study alternatives, should talks collapse, and step up efforts to reconcile with the Islamic militant Hamas, said Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah member. One frequently mentioned possibility is to ask the U.N. Security Council to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.
In Gaza, Hamas leader, Ayman Taha, said he was not surprised by the impasse. Hamas, which seized control of Gaza by force from Abbas in 2007, has repeatedly called on the Palestinian leader to quit the talks. “These are futile negotiations,” said Taha.
In Tehran, visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad accused Obama of using the negotiations for domestic political gains.
“The talks are only aimed at supporting Obama’s position inside the U.S,” Assad said in his first public comments about the negotiations since they were launched in Washington a month ago. Assad and his host, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pledged to support “resistance” in the region, an apparent reference to Palestinian militants and others opposing Israel. Iran and Syria are key sponsors of Hamas and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Elsewhere in the region, White House envoy Mitchell met with Qatari leaders on Saturday, and then held talks in Cairo with senior Egyptian officials, including Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Afterward, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Suleiman and Aboul Gheit told Mitchell that Cairo supports the Palestinian position linking the negotiations with the Israeli halt to settlement activities.
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Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived in Teheran on Saturday for an official visit, and expressed dim hopes for any success in Middle East peace talks, saying the White House is only using its mediation between Israelis and Palestinians to score political points in the United States.
The comments by Assad followed talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who greeted him upon arrival. Both leaders pledged to support “resistance” in the region, an apparent reference to Palestinian militants and others opposing Israel.
The trip came two weeks after Ahmadinejad traveled to Syria, signaling Iran’s concerns about US efforts to pry Damascus away from its alliance with Teheran.
Assad said the current attempt at dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians have brought “no change” and claimed that President Barack Obama only seeks a political boost.
“The talks are only aimed at supporting Obama’s position inside the US” Assad said in his first public comments about the process since the latest round of negotiations began last month.
Assad also was awarded Iran’s highest national medal for his support to Palestinian militants and Hizbullah in Lebanon.
“The Syrian government and nation, at the forefront of resistance, have for years stood up against the expansionism and aggression of the Zionist regime,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
Assad, meanwhile, said the two countries “strategic relationship is necessary for the independence and the stability of the Middle East.”Assad’s talks in Iran also are expected to touch on the effects of international sanctions on Tehran and the political struggles in neighboring Iraq.
Earlier on Saturday Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said that his country is ready to make peace with Israel, Army Radio reported.
Mekdad said that it was Israel that was holding back on a peace agreement between the two countries.
According to the report, Mekdad added Syria is interested in strengthening ties with the US and reaching a peace agreement in the Middle East.
Mekdad claimed that a comprehensive peace agreement in the region would bring an end to the disagreement between Syria and the United Stated regarding Hizbullah in Lebanon.Mekdad said that it was Israel that was holding back on a peace agreement between the two countries.
According to the report, Mekdad added Syria is interested in strengthening ties with the US and reaching a peace agreement in the Middle East.
Mekdad claimed that a comprehensive peace agreement in the region would bring an end to the disagreement between Syria and the United Stated regarding Hizbullah in Lebanon.
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Netanyahu: The Palestinians must show some flexibility
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday told a closed meeting of his advisers that “moderate and restrained” building in West Bank settlements in the coming year will not affect the peace process.
Netanyahu’s comments followed meetings he held on Friday with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in which both pleaded with him to extend the moratorium on West Bank settlement construction, as the Palestinians stuck to their insistence that all building must stop for fledgling peace talks to continue.
“The international community needs to call on the Palestinians to remain in the peace talks. It’s in the Palestinians best interest just as it is in our own best interest,” Netanyahu told his advisers.
“My government has made a number of unilateral gestures in order to promote the peace talks,” explained the prime minister. “Unfortunately, unlike us, the Palestinians are only toughening their stance.”
Netanyahu continued, “For 17 years they have negotiated with the Israeli government while building was underway, including in the final year of the previous government. It was not easy for us to freeze new building in Judea and Samaria for 10 months, but I’ve fulfilled all of my obligations to the Palestinians, the American government and the international community.”“We froze construction in order to give Abu Mazen [Palestinan Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] an opening to enter into direct negotiations without preconditions. Now I expect the Palestinians to show some flexibility and remain in the talks.”
Abbas on Friday told Mitchell that the there will be no further peace negotiations with Israel as long as building in settlements continues, Israel Radio reported.
Mitchell met with Abbas in Ramallah on Friday after having met with Netanyahu in the hopes of finding a compromise that could save the talks which have stalled following Israel’s decision earlier this week not to extend the moratorium.
Following Abbas’s meeting with Mitchell, a Palestinian Authority spokesman said that no breakthrough to revive the talks had been made and that Israel’s insistence on continuing construction in the settlements is preventing progress towards reaching a peace agreement.
Senior Palestinian Authority official Yasser Abed Rabbo added that Israel’s refusal to halt settlement building is equivalent to a refusal to continue the peace talks which began early in September.
Also on Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit criticized the Palestinian Authority for its “insistence” on a moratorium on building in the settlements.
In an interview with London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, Aboul Gheit said waiting for a renewed freeze will only complicate peace talks, and that the most important issue is borders. Aboul Gheit also hinted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does not think a settlement freeze is essential.
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myBlessedHope 