Arab League Gives US 1 Month to Save Talks, US “Appreciates”

After Washington to arm Israel with 20 stealth planes and despite the Israeli daily crimes aginst Palestinians, and refusal to freez settlement activities, and while Zionist settlers attack farmers during olive harvesting and daily crimes aginst Palestinians, the Arab leaders, ignored Hamas calls to quit negotiations and back resistance strategy and Haneyyas calls on Arab summit to take responsible decisions the Arab League Gives US 1 Month to Save Talks, US “Appreciates”

09/10/2010 Arab countries will give the US one month to find a compromise which can save ‘peace talks’ between Israel and the Palestinians after negotiations stalled over the issue of Israeli building in occupied West Bank settlements, AFP quoted a diplomat at the Arab League meeting in Libya as saying on Friday.

The unnamed diplomat said that a resolution to be approved later Friday by the Arab League Follow-up Committee on the so-called peace process calls for the US administration to be given "a one month chance to seek the resumption of negotiations, including a halt to settlement [building]."

Under the resolution, the Arab foreign ministers would reconvene in one month's time "to examine the policy alternatives if the diplomatic efforts fail."

Prior to the meeting on Friday, Arab League head Amr Moussa said the leaders will attempt to find alternatives to the currently stalled “peace process”.

Moussa stated that Israel's "very, very negative" stance toward the talks is responsible for the current impasse. He added that the Arab League does not plan to tell Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas what steps to take going forward.

Some Arab countries are proposing that Abbas return to indirect negotiations to avoid a total breakdown of Mideast peace talks, diplomats said Friday.

Abbas arrived in Libya on Thursday to seek Arab League backing for his decision to quit direct talks with Israel until the settlement construction moratorium is renewed, amid no signs that the US and Israel have a formula in hand to break the impasse.

Although Ambassador to the US Michael Oren on Thursday was the first Israeli or American official to acknowledge that Washington had offered Jerusalem inducements to extend the freeze, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – in public statements he made later in the day – sounded more like someone trying to shift the blame for failure onto the other side, rather than someone on the verge of announcing a breakthrough.

The US late Friday welcomed AL decision. "We appreciate the Arab League's statement of support for our efforts to create conditions that will allow direct talks to move forward," US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley said in a written statement.

"We will continue to work with the parties, and all our international partners, to advance negotiations toward a two-state solution and encourage the parties to take constructive actions toward that end," Crowley added.
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