xenia
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2010
- Messages
- 785
- Reaction score
- 0
Israel and Palestinians to resume peace talks in Washington
Hillary Clinton hopes a peace agreement can be reached within a year, in first direct negotiations since 2008
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians would aim to 'resolve all final status issues within one year.
Israel and the Palestinians are to resume direct peace talks next month under pressure from Washington to break years of political stalemate.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, announced that the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, would meet in Washington on 2 September to "relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues which we believe can be completed within one year".
Israeli and Palestinian former negotiators and politicians greeted the news with scepticism, saying Abbas was only participating under US pressure and Netanyahu had no immediate political interest in reaching a peace agreement.
Clinton said the Egyptian and Jordanian leadership had also been invited to the opening of the negotiations, along with Tony Blair, the envoy for the quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russia, "in view of his important work to help Palestinians build the institutions of their future state".
"As we move forward it is important that actions by all sides help to advance our effort not hinder it. There have been difficulties in the past. There will be difficulties ahead. Without a doubt we will hit more obstacles. The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region," Clinton said.
The US said all major issues would be on the table, including the difficult final status questions of the borders of a Palestinian state, the division of Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, said he believed it was realistic to include a one-year deadline to resolve core issues on which neither side has been able to reach agreement since the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
"We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective," he said. Netanyahu and Abbas were "sincere and serious" about peace and Washington would take a hands-on role in guiding the talks because it was "in the national security interests of the United States".
The date for negotiations has been set only after the Obama administration pressured Abbas into agreeing to talks. Abbas has sought guarantees from the US that the Palestinians would not be drawn in to perpetual negotiations that go nowhere while Israel continues to expand in to the occupied territories. The Obama administration offered the one-year deadline for talks as a reassurance to the Palestinians, but Abbas and his colleagues remain sceptical that the negotiations will achieve anything.
The Palestinians are also doubtful that the White House has the political will to pressure Israel, after Obama backed down in a confrontation with Netanyahu over settlement building.
Mitchell said he accepted there was continued hostility between the two sides but drew on his experience as the Northern Ireland peace broker. "In a sense in Northern Ireland we had about 700 days of failure and one day of success and we approach this task with the same determination to succeed, notwithstanding the difficulties and notwithstanding the inability to get a final result so far. Past efforts at peace that did not succeed cannot deter us from trying again because the cause is noble and just and right for all concerned," he said.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said: "A two-state solution is the only hope for lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians. Today's announcement is a courageous step towards that goal."
Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad official and political analyst, doubted the talks would bear fruit. "There will be direct talks and they will not succeed because both Netanyahu and Abu Mazen [Abbas], in terms of their own personal ideological views and their own internal politics, have virtually precluded possibility that there will be an agreement," he said.
Moty Cristal, a negotiations expert and adviser to previous Israeli prime ministers said: "Netanyahu is buying time, looking for ways to stay away from any action on the ground and have more time in leadership. Netanyahu doesn't think that the Palestinian situation is any threat or has any urgency. The urgency for him is the Iranian affair. He is saying to Obama: 'I will give you what you want, a direct negotiations process, if you will assist me in dealing with the Iranian threat.'"
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian former negotiator, said Abbas was too weak to achieve a just agreement at negotiations.
Abdul Rahman Zidan, a former minister in the Hamas government and a member of the Palestinian parliament agreed. "Nothing positive will come out of these fruitless talks we have tried this way several times. The Americans and the Israelis need talks any talks just for the feeling that there is a peace process. But for us, this is a negative, empty feeling because there is nothing on the table. It's a merry-go-round," he said.
An early test of Israeli goodwill is likely to be whether Netanyahu extends a partial freeze on settlement expansion that expires toward the end of next month.
Israel and Palestinians to resume peace talks in Washington | World news | The Guardian
Hillary Clinton hopes a peace agreement can be reached within a year, in first direct negotiations since 2008
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians would aim to 'resolve all final status issues within one year.
Israel and the Palestinians are to resume direct peace talks next month under pressure from Washington to break years of political stalemate.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, announced that the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, would meet in Washington on 2 September to "relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues which we believe can be completed within one year".
Israeli and Palestinian former negotiators and politicians greeted the news with scepticism, saying Abbas was only participating under US pressure and Netanyahu had no immediate political interest in reaching a peace agreement.
Clinton said the Egyptian and Jordanian leadership had also been invited to the opening of the negotiations, along with Tony Blair, the envoy for the quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russia, "in view of his important work to help Palestinians build the institutions of their future state".
"As we move forward it is important that actions by all sides help to advance our effort not hinder it. There have been difficulties in the past. There will be difficulties ahead. Without a doubt we will hit more obstacles. The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region," Clinton said.
The US said all major issues would be on the table, including the difficult final status questions of the borders of a Palestinian state, the division of Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, said he believed it was realistic to include a one-year deadline to resolve core issues on which neither side has been able to reach agreement since the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
"We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective," he said. Netanyahu and Abbas were "sincere and serious" about peace and Washington would take a hands-on role in guiding the talks because it was "in the national security interests of the United States".
The date for negotiations has been set only after the Obama administration pressured Abbas into agreeing to talks. Abbas has sought guarantees from the US that the Palestinians would not be drawn in to perpetual negotiations that go nowhere while Israel continues to expand in to the occupied territories. The Obama administration offered the one-year deadline for talks as a reassurance to the Palestinians, but Abbas and his colleagues remain sceptical that the negotiations will achieve anything.
The Palestinians are also doubtful that the White House has the political will to pressure Israel, after Obama backed down in a confrontation with Netanyahu over settlement building.
Mitchell said he accepted there was continued hostility between the two sides but drew on his experience as the Northern Ireland peace broker. "In a sense in Northern Ireland we had about 700 days of failure and one day of success and we approach this task with the same determination to succeed, notwithstanding the difficulties and notwithstanding the inability to get a final result so far. Past efforts at peace that did not succeed cannot deter us from trying again because the cause is noble and just and right for all concerned," he said.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said: "A two-state solution is the only hope for lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians. Today's announcement is a courageous step towards that goal."
Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad official and political analyst, doubted the talks would bear fruit. "There will be direct talks and they will not succeed because both Netanyahu and Abu Mazen [Abbas], in terms of their own personal ideological views and their own internal politics, have virtually precluded possibility that there will be an agreement," he said.
Moty Cristal, a negotiations expert and adviser to previous Israeli prime ministers said: "Netanyahu is buying time, looking for ways to stay away from any action on the ground and have more time in leadership. Netanyahu doesn't think that the Palestinian situation is any threat or has any urgency. The urgency for him is the Iranian affair. He is saying to Obama: 'I will give you what you want, a direct negotiations process, if you will assist me in dealing with the Iranian threat.'"
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian former negotiator, said Abbas was too weak to achieve a just agreement at negotiations.
Abdul Rahman Zidan, a former minister in the Hamas government and a member of the Palestinian parliament agreed. "Nothing positive will come out of these fruitless talks we have tried this way several times. The Americans and the Israelis need talks any talks just for the feeling that there is a peace process. But for us, this is a negative, empty feeling because there is nothing on the table. It's a merry-go-round," he said.
An early test of Israeli goodwill is likely to be whether Netanyahu extends a partial freeze on settlement expansion that expires toward the end of next month.
Israel and Palestinians to resume peace talks in Washington | World news | The Guardian
