Arab peace plan as part of Palestinian state push: U.S. By Mohammed Assadi APR 17,09
RAMALLAH (Reuters) – U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said on Friday that an Arab peace initiative should be part of a planned U.S. drive to create a Palestinian state.In three separate violent incidents in the West Bank on Friday, Israelis killed three Palestinian men, the highest number of deaths in the occupied territory for over a year.The Arab initiative of 2002 offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.The U.S. is committed to the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state where the aspirations of the Palestinian people to control their destiny are realized. We want the Arab peace initiative to be part of the effort to reach this goal,Mitchell said after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.Mitchell did not elaborate on what part the Arab initiative might play in U.S. attempts to mediate a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.U.S. leaders including President Barack Obama have made references to the Arab peace plan without ever endorsing the Arab demand that Israel withdraw from all the land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war -- the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip, which is under siege.The previous U.S. administration of George W. Bush tried without success to use the Arab peace plan to draw Saudi Arabia and other conservative Gulf states into contacts with Israel before the Israelis gave any commitment to full withdrawal.
But Mitchell's remarks were another reminder to Israel's new right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that the United States wants to see progress.
Netanayahu, who saw Mitchell on Thursday, has yet to give a commitment to restart U.S.-backed talks with Abbas on core issues such as statehood borders, and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.Israeli officials quoted Netanyahu as telling Mitchell that his right-leaning government wanted the Palestinians to first recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians have long rejected such explicit recognition of the Jewish nature of a state where one in five people is Arab.It is clear that there is a government in Israel that rejects signed agreements, that insists on continuing settlement activities,senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Erekat said Abbas asked Mitchell to exert every possible effort to pressure Israel to commit to a two-state solution and to meet other obligations, including a freeze in Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and a halt to home demolitions in Arab East Jerusalem.Netanyahu's two-week-old government has yet to take a public position on the Arab peace initiative.But in their meeting on Thursday, Netanyahu spoke to Mitchell about the need to involve in the process important moderate Arab states, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, a senior Israeli official said.A senior Western diplomat familiar with the Obama administration's deliberations said Washington wanted to pursue the Arab peace initiative but was keeping its options open.We have put the flag squarely in the two-state solution camp but we haven't said how you get there,the diplomat said.Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, said he saw positive points in the Arab peace initiative.But Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now the Jewish state and wants to hold on to major settlement blocs in the West Bank. Mitchell's next stop is Egypt.
WEST BANK VIOLENCE
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed troops shot dead a Palestinian who threw petrol bombs toward the Jewish settlement of Beit El near Ramallah. She said a second Palestinian suffered light wounds after troops had spotted the two. A Ramallah hospital official said the 16-year-old from the Jalazoun refugee camp next to the settlement had died from a single bullet wound to the chest, local Palestinian residents said he was holding a petrol bomb when he was shot. In another incident, Palestinian hospital officials said a 30-year-old man died of a wound to the chest during a protest at the village of Bilin, site of almost weekly protests against the West Bank separation barrier that Israel is building. Earlier in the day a Palestinian with a knife infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Beit Haggai in the southern West Bank and was shot dead by a security guard, the Israeli army said. In Gaza, Islamist Hamas's two senior leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud al-Zahar made their first public appearances, delivering sermons in mosques, witnesses said. The two went to ground and witnesses said that neither had been seen in public since December 27, when Israel launched a 22-day offensive to counter Palestinian short-range rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The territory has been largely quiet since the Netanyahu government took power this month. He has set toppling Hamas among his long-term goals.(Additional reporting by Adam Entous, Dan Williams and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Writing by Ori Lewis and Adam Entous; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
US envoy to meet Abbas, pushes two-state solution by Marius Schattner - Thu Apr 16, 10:21 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's envoy to the Middle East was set to meet Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank on Friday after pressing a two-state solution to sceptical officials in Israel.US policy favours, with the respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a two-state solution,special envoy George Mitchell told reporters Thursdaqy after talks with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has refused to endorse the US-sponsored peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.Lieberman's response was that the peace process has reached a dead end and the new (Israeli) government will have to formulate new ideas and approaches,his office said.Israel's new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mitchell met later in Tel Aviv.Israel expects the Palestinians to recognise the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, the premier's office said he told the US Middle East envoy.The Palestinian Authority (PA) promptly rejected the demand. This is an obstacle on the path to peace and the creation of two states,said Abbas's spokesman.The PA has already rejected such a demand in the past, saying it recognises Israel within the country's borders before the 1967 Middle East war when the Israelis seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Recognition of a Jewish state would for the Palestinians amount to abandoning the right to return of Palestinian refugees.Abbas, who will meet Mitchell in Ramallah, has insisted the new Israeli cabinet commit itself to a two-state solution before the two sides can resume talks.Israel does not seek to rule over the Palestinians but must make sure the political process with them does not lead to a second Hamastan within the country that would threaten Jerusalem and the coastal plain,Netanyahu said.
He was referring to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist.Lieberman's comments highlighted the risk Israel could be on a collision course with its most important ally, as Washington insists on the principle of a Palestinian state and Netanyahu refuses to endorse the plan.
Mitchell flew in to Israel on Wednesday on his first trip to the region since Netanyahu became the head of a largely right-wing cabinet, sparking concern over the fate of the troubled peace talks.Underscoring the divide with Washington, Interior Minister Eli Yishai told reporters: In the present circumstances, one has to work not for two states for two people, but for two economies for two people.Lieberman later told his visiting Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos that the government was still formulating its policies, which would be based on the principles of halting rocket fire from Hamas-ruled Gaza, ending Iran's controversial nuclear programme and improving the Palestinian economy.Netanyahu says that the economy in the occupied West Bank must improve before any other steps are taken in the faltering Middle East peace process.Lieberman -- slammed by critics as a "racist" for his anti-Arab diatribes -- has also sparked concerns by declaring when he assumed office that the new cabinet was not bound by the US-backed 2007 agreement to relaunch talks with the Palestinians.Israel has committed itself to the principle of a Palestinian state under the 2003 international roadmap for peace, which included a series of steps for Israelis and Palestinians to follow, eventually resulting in negotiations over core issues and the creation of a Palestinian state. The plan has made little progress since its launch by the Middle East Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States. Mitchell invited Netanyahu to meet with the US president in May but did not provide a date, an Israeli statement said. Netanyahu had been earlier invited to meet with Obama on May 11 but had declined saying it clashed with a visit to his country by Pope Benedict XVI. Israeli media has speculated that Netanyahu could visit the United States in early May at the invitation of a pro-Israeli lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. But Obama is not available during this period.Mitchell, a former US senator, played a key role in reaching the 1998 Good Friday accords that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Netanyahu demands Palestinians recognise Jewish state Thu Apr 16, 1:17 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday demanded the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state during a meeting with US special envoy George Mitchell, the premier's office said.Israel expects the Palestinians to recognise the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, the prime minister told Mitchell at their meeting in Tel Aviv.The Palestinian Authority has rejected such a demand in the past, saying it recognises Israel within the country's borders of before the 1967 Middle East when the Israelis seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Recognition of a Jewish state would amount for the Palestinians to abandoning the right to return of Palestinian refugees.Mitchell, who arrived on Wednesday, has been pressing a two-state solution to sceptical officials in Israel, whose hawkish new prime minister opposes a Palestinian state.US policy favours, with the respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a two-state solution, Mitchell told reporters after holding talks in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.In response, Lieberman said that the peace process has reached a dead end and that the new (Israeli) government will have to formulate new ideas and approaches,according to a statement from his office.The traditional approach has so far led to no solutions or results,Lieberman said.
Obama to discuss Mideast peace with Jordanian kingThu Apr 16, 10:17 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama is planning to discuss stalled Middle East peace talks with King Abdullah II of Jordan when the monarch visits Washington next week, the White House said Wednesday.The April 21 visit, previously announced by the king's palace in Amman, will focus on the pursuit of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including moving forward with the Arab Peace Initiative, the White House said in a statement.Obama looks forward to discussing ways in which the two countries can strengthen cooperation on regional affairs, military and security issues and reform efforts,it added.In Amman, the palace said in a statement released Sunday that the summit will focus on efforts to reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and realize comprehensive Middle East peace.During the trip, the king will also meet with US officials and leaders of the Arab, Muslim and Jewish communities to discuss Middle East peace efforts, the palace said.The concept of a two-state solution, which would see a viable Palestinian state existing alongside a secure Israel, is central to Obama's Middle East policy.But it is unpopular in hawkish new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
Egypt security finds TNT hoard near Israel border Wed Apr 15, 2:32 pm ET
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP) – Egyptian security forces have found a hoard of almost a tonne of explosives in Sinai near the border with Israel, a security official said on Wednesday.Nine-hundred kilograms of TNT were found packed in 17 bags, the official said, adding that three Palestinians and two Jordanians were arrested in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zweid as part of the same operation.The Palestinians appear to have entered Egypt illegally from neighbouring Gaza and are being questioned, the official said.The discovery of the explosives came amid heightened security measures in Sinai, where police have been searching for members of an alleged Hezbollah cell which Egypt says planned attacks in the country.Egypt's public prosecutor announced last week that a security investigation had found that a cell of 49 members had been planning hostile operations in Egypt at the behest of Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
Some 25 members of the cell have been arrested.
Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah confirmed on Friday that one of the 25 men arrested was a Hezbollah agent tasked with smuggling weapons to Palestinian militants in Gaza.Nasrallah denied that the man, identified as Sami Shihab, was planning attacks in Egypt.Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, is a vocal supporter of Hamas and has lashed out at Egypt for closing its border crossing with the Palestinian enclave, the only one that bypasses Israel.Israel last week told its citizens to leave the Sinai, a popular destination for Israeli tourists during the Jewish Passover holiday, because of a threat of attacks or kidnappings by Hezbollah.
Israel will not cooperate with U.N. Gaza inquiry Wed Apr 15, 11:33 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel does not plan to cooperate with a U.N. agency's investigation into alleged war crimes by Israeli troops and Hamas militants during fighting in Gaza, an Israeli government official said Wednesday.Israeli forces launched a 22-day offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in late December with the stated goal of stopping cross-border rockets fired by Palestinian militants.
According to a Palestinian rights group, 1,417 Palestinians, including 926 civilians, were killed in the fighting. Israel disputes those figures.The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone this month to head the investigation into allegations of human rights violations by both sides during the December 27 to January 18 conflict.The Israeli government official said a letter was sent to Goldstone, a South African judge, through the Israeli embassy in Geneva informing him and the council that Israel believed it was impossible to cooperate with the committee in its inquiry.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on January 12 condemning Israel's military offensive and calling for its cessation was not supported by most democratic countries.Hamas has not voiced opposition to Goldstone's inquiry but has yet to say whether it will cooperate. Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged the United States and the European Union to pressure Israel and Hamas to go along with the investigation.Goldstone's four-member team is expected to travel to the region in a few weeks and will issue a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in July, the investigator said this month.Human rights groups have criticized Israel's conduct during the Gaza offensive and called for an investigation into possible war crimes.In addition to looking at Israel's conduct, Goldstone has said his inquiry would assess possible Palestinian violations of human rights. Militants fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel during the fighting.(Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Robert Woodward)
Turkey pushes for nuclear arms-free Middle East Wed Apr 15, 7:05 am ET
MANAMA (Reuters) – Turkish President Abdullah Gul called on Wednesday for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, hoping that a U.S.-Russian pledge to join forces to eradicate nuclear weapons will encourage the region.U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to seek a deal by July on cutting their nuclear arsenals, work for a nuclear-free world and coordinate policy on Iran and North Korea.Gul, in a speech to Bahrain's parliament, said: The Middle East should be a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.We are going through times where hopes for multilateral diplomacy to weigh in once again are on the rise. That is why I take the new U.S. administration's statements on disarmament and the joint statement by presidents Obama and Medvedev early this month very seriously.
Obama visited Turkey in early April and held talks with Gul.Gul called on all countries in the Middle East to sign up to international arrangements for the prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea also have declared nuclear weapons. Israel is widely understood to have a nuclear arsenal but maintains a policy of ambiguity.Iran is suspected by Western powers of wanting to join the club. Tehran says its nuclear program is only to generate electricity. There is concern that Iran's nuclear power program will spur a proliferation drive in the Middle East.Gul and the Turkish government under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan have relaunched a push to help solve regional conflicts ranging from Iran to Israel-Syria peace talks.Turkey has also offered to help end the standoff between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.Turkey has always pointed out that any solution to the issue of the Iranian nuclear program should be found through diplomacy and peaceful means,Gul said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Iran had prepared a package to resolve its nuclear dispute.He was speaking after the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain said they would ask European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to invite Iran to a meeting to find a diplomatic solution to this critical issue.It marked a shift in U.S. policy under Obama, whose predecessor George W. Bush shunned direct talks with Tehran as long as it pressed ahead with its nuclear activity.Ahmadinejad did not give details about the package, which he said would be presented to the West soon.(Writing by Paul de Bendern in Istanbul; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Mitchell to push Mideast for two-state solution Tue Apr 14, 11:29 am ET
RABAT (AFP) – US special envoy George Mitchell said on Tuesday he would press Israel and Arab nations to back a two-state option as the only solution to the Middle East conflict, in the first stop of a regional tour.In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we believe that the two-state solution, two states living side by side in peace, is the best and the only way to resolve this conflict,Mitchell said after talks with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi-Fihri in Rabat.He said he would push that objective during his two-week visit to the region, which includes meetings with officials from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, the Gulf states as well as north Africa.Mitchell's visit to the region is his first since Israel's right-leaning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office. The US senator is President Barack Obama's special envoy for Middle East peace.He flew on from Morocco to Algeria, where he had talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, after being met at the airport by Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci.
