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US envoy leaves Mideast without peace talks deal
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 11 - 10 - 2009


Washington's special Mideast envoy
wrapped up his latest round of shuttle diplomacy in the
region on Sunday, again having failed to persuade the
Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks, AP reported.
The envoy, George Mitchell, spent more than an hour
huddling with Israel's prime minister and defense minister.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the talks
«continued their discussions on moving the peace process
forward.»
Two lower-level Israeli officials will head to Washington
this week for further discussions, it added. Mitchell did
not comment publicly after the meeting and was returning to
Washington, U.S. officials said.
Mitchell, a former U.S. senator and mediator of Northern
Ireland's peace deal, has been shuttling between Israeli
and Palestinian officials for months, trying to restart
negotiations that broke down late last year.
Mitchell met with Netanyahu and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas late last week before traveling to Cairo over
the weekend to meet with Egyptian officials, who often play
leading roles in mediating the conflict.
Even with the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to his boss,
Mitchell appeared to have made little progress in
persuading the adversaries to soften their positions.
Israel has refused to give in to U.S. pressure to freeze
construction in Jewish settlements built in the West Bank
and east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians, who claim both areas as parts of a
future independent state, say they won't resume talks
without such an internationally mandated freeze. They also
want guarantees that an Israeli pullout from the West Bank
and east Jerusalem will be the basis of a final agreement.
Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.
«The Israelis need to acknowledge that the 1967 borders
are the borders between the two states, and this is the
foundation of any negotiations,» said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a
top Abbas aide.
Netanyahu has signaled he wants to keep parts of the West
Bank and says east Jerusalem will remain in Israeli hands.
Abbas will be hard-pressed to back down after provoking
unprecedented outrage among his people for suspending
efforts to bring Israel before a U.N. war crimes tribunal
for its conduct during last winter's war in the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday evening, Abbas defended his decision to agree to
a six-month deferral of a vote on a U.N. report alleging
war crimes were committed in Gaza by both Israel and Hamas.
The vote was to have been taken earlier this month by the
U.N. Human Rights Council, but was put off until March
after the Palestinians withdrew their support, under what
Palestinian officials said was heavy U.S. pressure.
Abbas suggested that the Palestinians had simply gone
along with the prevailing view at the council. «From a
position of responsibility and honesty, I say that the
deferral came after an agreement between all the groups in
the Human Rights Council, and after studying all positions
and seeking the utmost support for the project,» he said.
Abbas noted that he's asked a committee to look into the
decision-making surrounding the U.N. report. «If the
committee finds any wrongdoing, any mistake in the
deferral, we have the courage to take the responsibility
and to say that we made a mistake,» Abbas said.
However, the committee members are public figures with
little clout, and it's unlikely they would issue findings
considered damaging to Abbas.
In any case, the uproar over his handling of the U.N.
report has already caused considerable harm to Abbas'
standing. In recent days, Abbas and his aides have
scrambled to repair the damage, including by asking the
Human Rights Council to consider voting now, rather than in
six months.
Complicating the U.S. peace mission is the deep divide
between rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek to build a state that
includes both territories, located on opposite sides of
Israel.
Egypt has been trying to broker a power-sharing deal
between Abbas' government in the West Bank and the Hamas
rulers in Gaza. Hamas seized control of Gaza after ousting
pro-Abbas forces in 2007.
A reconciliation deal was to have been signed on Oct. 25,
but Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Sunday
that the elusive agreement has been delayed for several
weeks. The accord was to have allowed the two sides to
cooperate in rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza and prepare for
Palestinian elections next year.
Hamas said on its Web site that it was postponing the
agreement because of Abbas' decision to delay action on the
U.N. report. A U.N. panel led by veteran war crimes
prosecutor Richard Goldstone accused Israel of using
disproportionate force and deliberately targeting civilians
during its winter assault on Gaza. It also called Hamas'
firing of rockets at civilian areas in southern Israel a
war crime.
Both sides have denied war crimes allegations.


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