The European Union, the United Nations and the Arab League have rebuked Israel after its refusal to halt settlement construction forced Washington to drop efforts to relaunch Mideast peace talks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday stuck to his position that he won’t negotiate without a freeze of Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — lands captured by Israel and sought by the Palestinians for their state. He spoke after meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. "Without halt of settlements, there will be no talks," Abbas said.
With the path to direct talks effectively blocked, it is not clear what the Obama administration will do next.
Israeli and Palestinian envoys were summoned to Washington for separate meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She saw Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho on Thursday, to be followed by talks with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Friday. Molcho also met Obama envoy George Mitchell for three hours, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
Clinton is to address the situation in a speech after meeting Erekat. US officials have refused to offer a detailed preview, but have said they expect she will express disappointment with the failure of the administration’s efforts to date. But, they said they expect her to stress that the administration has not given up and will continue to aggressively pursue a peace deal.
The officials said the hope is that enough progress can be made on security issues and setting a final border between Israel and a future Palestinian state in separate talks with the sides to pave the way for a resumption of direct negotiations.
Israel and the Palestinians launched the latest round of peace talks on Sept. 2. But less than a month later, negotiations broke down after Israel refused to extend a 10-month-old freeze on West Bank housing starts that ended at the end of September.
In recent weeks, the US tried to persuade Israel to extend a limited West Bank settlement freeze for 90 days, but the negotiations broke down. Washington did not cast blame. But other members of the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators, which also includes the EU, the UN and Russia, sharply criticized Israel.
"I note with regret that Israel has not been in a position to accept an extension of the (settlement) moratorium, as requested by the US, the EU and the Quartet," Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said Thursday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed regret "that Israel will not heed the united call of the international community, as reflected by the Quartet, to extend the settlement restraint policy," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
(AP via Arab News)
