Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been “burning up the phone lines” the past five days to try and lay the groundwork for a transition from indirect to direct Israel-Palestinian peace talks, aides say.
Clinton’s phone calls with Arab and Israeli leaders come in advance of a meeting Thursday of Arab foreign ministers to decide if they will give their blessing to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for direct talks with the Israelis, rather than U.S.-mediated proximity talks. U.S. officials are reluctant to raise expectations. A State Department official said Wednesday that there have been no breakthroughs and Clinton is not pushing a timetable.
“We have a full-court press underway to see if we can move to direct negotiations,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday. “We’re hopeful that the parties will reach this point, but I can’t pinpoint a particular day on the calendar.”
In the last five days, Clinton has spoken “multiple times” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, twice with the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers, as well as with the Saudi foreign minister, Qatari prime minister, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair, EU foreign policy chief Baroness Catherine Ashton, and with Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell and the National Security Council throughout, the official said.
She also met privately Monday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who also met Tuesday with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Both Abbas and Netanyahu have held what several sources say were genuinely positive meetings with President Barack Obama at the White House the past two months. Behind the scenes, Israeli officials are said to have been offering a series of unpublicized confidence-building steps to the Palestinians to try to persuade Abbas to to agree to direct talks.
As yet unclear and very closely held is whether Netanyahu confidentially agreed with Obama to extend a partial West Bank settlement freeze set to expire in September. Publicly, Netanyahu has said he can’t extend the freeze without Abbas agreeing to direct talks.
“It is a complicated chess game,” said former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), now president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, and a close ally of the administration on the peace process. “Abbas seeks more progress before direct negotiations even though he has received direct assurances from the president. Abbas does not want to be made to appear foolish and he is, in fact, hearing from certain Israelis that the Labor Party will bolt the coalition if there is no progress. He is gaming whether such internal pressure is advantageous for his negotiating position.”
“The [Obama] administration will tolerate just so much,” Wexler continued, referring to Abbas holding out on direct negotiations. “Abbas needs to be careful he does not overplay his hand with the administration. … My personal opinion is Abbas is better off long-term relying on the president's assurances, obtain immediate on-the-ground ‘good will’ gestures from Bibi, and test Bibi's declaration of willingness to make serious concessions for peace.”
But veteran U.S. Middle East negotiator Aaron Miller argues that the Obama administration should be "very careful that in its hurry to get direct talks going, it doesn't spark an Israeli-Palestinian crisis" that reveals how far the parties are from a conflict-ending solution, he writes at ForeignPolicy.com Wednesday. "Every single agreement that has endured -- save one -- came not as a result of direct talks but from heavy duty U.S. mediation."
"The only conceivable purpose of direct talks now would be to provide clarity," he writes. "And clarity when you can't reach a deal is not always a good thing."
Abbas will tell the Arab League not enough progress has been achieved as yet to go into direct talks yet, a Palestinian official told Reuters.
Arabs Agree to Israel-Palestinian Talks, Abbas 'Must Decide'
29/07/2010 Arab officials agreed in principle on Thursday to the holding of direct Middle East peace negotiations and left it up to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to decide when to start talks with Israel.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been under pressure from Washington to move forward, and the announcement prompted Netanyahu to express openness to starting talks "in the next few days."
Qatari prime minister and foreign minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani made the announcement after chairing a meeting of foreign ministers and representatives in Cairo.
He spoke in response to a question about whether they had given Abbas a "green light" to start talks.
"I'll be clear. There is an agreement but with the understanding of what will be discussed and how the direct negotiations will be conducted. And we will leave the assessment of the position to the Palestinian president as to when the conditions allow the beginning of such negotiations," he said.
The meeting drafted a letter to US President Barack Obama which laid out the "general principles" of peace talks, an official who took part in the meeting said.
They included "the presence of a clear reference for the direct negotiations and a halt to (certain) Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories, especially a halt to settlement activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa said "written guarantees" were required for direct talks. There "must be written guarantees ... and the negotiations should be serious and final status talks," he said.
Hisham Yusef, who heads Mussa's office, said the meeting gave a "yellow light that needs some work before it turns green."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to be pinned down on a framework for negotiations.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told an Arab newspaper this week that US President Barack Obama told the Palestinians in a letter that he will help found a Palestinian state only if they begin direct talks with Israel.
This week The Associated Press obtained a Palestinian document that revealed that special US envoy George Mitchell warned Abbas that if he does not agree to direct talks, President Barack Obama will not be able to help the Palestinians achieve a state of their own.
On Wednesday, Egypt said it has received US assurances that may help in restarting the direct peace talks.
Egyptian presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad did not disclose details of the US assurances.
Awwad said that Obama has committed to exerting efforts toward direct peace talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
He said President Hosni Mubarak has received a letter from Obama, followed by calls from Vice President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, all signaling a US commitment to establish a Palestinian state. "These are all indications which we hope are pursued and yield Arab and international consensus to launch direct peace talks with a time table and clear terms of reference," Awwad said.
Egyptian officials say enthusiastic engagement from Obama could help efforts to resume direct talks. But the Palestinian document noted that Mitchell demanded Palestinian agreement for direct talks before Obama gets involved.
HAMAS URGES ARABS TO REJECT TALKS; SAYS NO LONGER RECOGNIZES ABBAS AS PRESIDENT
For its part, Hamas has reiterated the party's rejection of peace negotiations with Israel and says any calls from Arab states to push them forward amount to a "political sin."
Speaking ahead of the AL meeting, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters Thursday that Hamas no longer recognizes Abbas as president.
Abu Zuhri said that Hamas is not convinced by the Egyptian comments on the US assurances, adding that Arab states should stand by Palestinians and reject negotiations.
The official called on Abbas to condemn Israel's razing of the Bedouin village of Al-Araqib, located some 30 kilometers from the northern Gaza Strip and 10 kilometers southwest of occupied Al-Khalil. He added that an "Arab reaction" was necessary in the face of the destruction.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment