EU outlines measures to back Annapolis conference
By Yossi Lempkowicz Updated: 19/Nov/2007 23:38
The EU Foreign Ministers endorsed a document — written by Benita Ferrero-Waldner (R), the EU External Relations Commissioner, and Javier Solana (L), the EU foreign policy chief — outlining steps to support the process emerging from the conference scheduled to take place at the end of this month in Annapolis, Maryland.
BRUSSELS (EJP)---The European Union is preparing to back the Annapolis Middle East international peace conference with new security and economic measures. At a meeting in Brussels on Monday, the EU Foreign Ministers endorsed a document — written by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU External Relations Commissioner, and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief — outlining steps to support the process emerging from the conference scheduled to take place at the end of this month in Annapolis, Maryland. A statement issued after the meeting said:The EU Council expresses its full commitment to further support the parties in their ongoing negotiations and subsequent implementation. The EU External Relations Council adopted the following conclusions: The Council reiterates its strong support for the upcoming international meeting at Annapolis and the efforts of Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert. It looks forward to the achievement of concrete results leading to meaningful final status negotiations. These should result in a two state solution with the establishment of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbours. The Council reaffirms that this is a crucial opportunity for regional and international partners to effectively support a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. In this context, the Council calls for a continued broad and positive involvement by Arab partners, building on the Arab Peace Initiative. Source: Council of the European Union
In this context, the Council welcomes the EU Action Strategy submitted by the EU High Representative in full association with the Commission, which will be the basis for further work by the EU taking into account the results of the Annapolis International meeting.Under the plan, the EU would expand its existing police mission to train, equip and reconstruct the police force and prison facilities in the Palestinian Territories. It would be complemented by wider support to the rule of law.If requested, the EU will be ready in due course to contribute to a system of security arrangements that would be agreed between the parties in the framework of a permanent settlement, the text said. The EU will also build on current support for the Palestinian private sector, including via credit guarantees, and help improve customs and trade.We want to support the growth of the Palestinian economy, Ferrero-Waldner said at a press conference, calling for a quick impact on the ground.She said post-Annapolis aid measures would benefit the Palestinian economy and, in turn, meet Israel’s long-standing demand for security guarantees. We know that Israel always fears for the security of its population, said Ferrero-Waldner. She said if the Palestinian economy can be revived, there will be hope again for peace. In 2007, aid to the Palestinians from the EU and its member states will total about 1 billion euros.
We have been contributing a lot, Ferrero-Waldner said. It is important now that other donors come forward.She said the EU looked to Arab League nations to announce contributions at a Paris donor conference that would follow the Annapolis meeting.
Ex-NATO chief asked to play Mideast role By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer NOV 28,07
WASHINGTON - A former NATO commander has been asked to act as a United States' liaison between Israel and the Palestinians as they try to negotiate complicated arrangements necessary to reach a final peace accord, diplomats and Palestinian officials said Wednesday. Retired Gen. James Jones of the U.S. Marine Corps was the alliance's top commander in Europe. It was not immediately clear whether he had accepted the offer.The diplomats and officials spoke on condition of anonymity because there has been no official announcement.Jones, who ended his 40-year career in the Marines last February, has been president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Energy since March. Last summer he headed a congressionally chartered panel that studied the readiness of Iraq's army and police.
The United States pledged Tuesday at an international peace conference on the Mideast held in Annapolis, Md., to hold both sides to account if they do not carry out obligations.The recently revived U.S.-backed road map peace plan quickly foundered after it was presented in 2003 because the Palestinians did not rein in militant groups and Israel did not freeze all construction in West Bank settlements, as it had pledged to do.Bringing Jones in to closely follow the process is designed to assure that newly resumed peace talks don't languish because promises are broken.At Annapolis, Israeli and Palestinian leaders formally announced their intention to resume peace talks after seven years of violence. A ceremonial inauguration of the process is to be held at the White House later Wednesday.
Israel, Palestinians to open peace talks at White House by Ron Bousso and Ezzedine Said NOV 28,07
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders promised to push for a peace deal by the end of 2008 ahead of formally launching their new campaign with President George W. Bush at the White House on Wednesday. Bush was to host Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert one day after they agreed at a Middle East peace conference to make a new bid for a comprehensive accord.The new talks -- part victory lap after the unprecedented meeting, part final reassurances that Washington means to see the process through -- were to culminate with a joint public appearance in the White House Rose Garden.Amid the widespread skepticism before the conference, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino quipped with relief that it would be like the after-party following a big event, but insisted Bush would emphasize that he said he was committed, and he means it.He's got an open mind, and he's got a wide-open door, and the phone lines are open and they can call him any time. And so I think that's one of the things that he'll reinforce with them, she told reporters.
The US president was to meet first with Abbas, then Olmert, then hold a three-way session before making a statement in the Rose Garden at 2:05 pm (1905 GMT) with his two guests at his side.With delegates from 50 countries -- including Saudi Arabia and Syria and other countries that do not recognise Israel -- watching, Olmert and Abbas agreed to a set of principles for talks Bush hopes will help create an independent Palestinian state before he leaves office in January 2009.But within hours of the announcement, Olmert said the deadline might slip but you have to start somewhere. And we are committed, absolutely, to help start it.The Israeli press greeted the peace pledge with skepticism. The Yediot Aharonot daily said: Only a miracle can complete it within a year.Bush brushed aside the doubters, telling the conference at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland that now is precisely the right time to begin these negotiations.He cited a new willingness among the leaders of both sides as well as global support for fresh negotiations, and warned we must not cede victory to the extremists.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said later the new negotiations would begin on Wednesday at the White House between Olmert and Abbas.But Bush acknowledged sealing a deal would not be easy, and in a sign of the difficulties ahead, tens of thousands of Palestinian Islamists poured onto the streets in Gaza and the West Bank in protests which left one Palestinian dead.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told reporters that groups like Hamas in the Palestinian territories are the Achilles heel of the new peace process because they could change the agenda with attacks.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose government backs Hamas and was not invited to Annapolis, dismissed the conference as a failure and took another verbal shot at Israel, predicting its downfall.
The conference failed already and was stillborn. It lacked the cornerstones of effective political work, he said in a cabinet meeting, according state media.But Abbas told his people to trust in the future, for an independent Palestine is arriving, while Olmert vowed Israel was prepared to make a painful compromise to achieve peace.The joint statement from the Palestinians and Israelis was a victory for Bush, only hammered out moments before his keynote speech with his direct intervention, the White House said. Major differences remain over core issues like the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees. But the first meeting of a top-level steering committee is to be held on December 12, and the two sides agreed to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues.
Abbas urged direct and concrete measures on the ground to show that the world was committed to the irreversible march towards peace.He also called on Israel to end completely settlements ... reopen Palestinian institutions closed in east Jerusalem, dismantle non-authorized settlements, lift all barriers and free the prisoners.Olmert called for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal as Israel only has full diplomatic relations with three Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania. But he was rebuffed by Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who said Riyadh supported the new talks but that a comprehensive deal required Israel first to withdraw from occupied Arab land. Saudi Arabia drew up an Arab peace initiative offering formal diplomatic ties with Israel in return for an Israeli pullout from all land occupied in the 1967 war. Russia said it would host a follow-up conference in Moscow.
Jerusalem, refugees hinder Mideast peace By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer NOV 28,07
JERUSALEM - If Israelis and Palestinians have any hope of achieving their stated goal of signing a final peace treaty within a year, they may have to slice Jerusalem in half with a wall, come up with $85 billion for Palestinian refugees and figure out how to wrest control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas. They'll also have to agree on which territory Israel should give to a future Palestine in exchange for being allowed to keep major settlement blocs in the West Bank. And if they decide not to divide Jerusalem, they'll have to determine how to share it while avoiding the potential security nightmare of an open border.These are just some of the excruciating challenges faced by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators as they begin discussions Dec. 12 on how to end their century-old conflict — as agreed upon Tuesday at a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace summit in Annapolis, Md.The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — areas that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Of all the obstacles to a peace deal, none looms larger than Jerusalem — the city at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with its holy sites of such enormous importance to Muslims, Jews and Christians.Past peace negotiations have made it clear that the city will have to serve as the capital of both Israel and a future Palestine.But that raises more questions than it answers. How can you transfer east Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty without stripping its residents of Israeli social security benefits, for instance, or how can Israelis and Palestinians each have access to the city but not the other's country? The Palestinian vision of Jerusalem is what they call an open city, with access to all parts, said Yitzhak Reiter, head of the Truman Institute think tank in Jerusalem. From an Israeli perspective, this is a problem, because there would be no 'hard borders' between Palestine and Israel.Most Israelis and Palestinians do not want to divide the city, like the way it was before Israel captured its eastern sector in 1967. However, security concerns may require just that — unless the sides can come up with an alternative such as erecting checkpoints at all roads leading out of Jerusalem to keep Palestinian militants from entering Israeli cities.But there's an even thornier issue — how to share the emotionally charged Jerusalem holy site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. As the site contains a Muslim shrine built on the remains of a Jewish one, a solution will almost certainly require an international presence to administer jurisdiction.Another major hurdle facing the negotiators is the issue of refugees.
The Palestinians want refugees and their descendants to be able to return to homes they left, or were forced out of, in the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation. The demand is a deal breaker for Israelis, who sees it as a threat to their country's Jewish character.In the end, it seems the Palestinians will have little choice but to give up their dream of returning home. But that still leaves open the question of whether Israel will meet Palestinian demands that it acknowledge responsibility for the refugees' plight.A recent report by the Aix Group, a gathering of Israeli, Palestinian and international economists, estimated the total cost of resettling and compensating Palestinian refugees and their descendants — a necessary element of any peace deal — would be between $55 billion and $85 billion over 10 years. It's far from clear where such an enormous sum would come from.Israelis and Palestinians will also need to draw their future border. The formula worked out in previous negotiations called for a Palestinian state in the lines that existed before the 1967 war, with some modifications. Israel would be allowed to maintain most of its so-called settlement blocs — where most of its West Bank settlers reside — in exchange for giving the Palestinians territory inside Israel.
It won't be an easy swap. The Palestinians will surely demand Israeli territory of equal size and value to the land they're giving up for the settlements.From the Israeli perspective, security is the biggest obstacle to peace — especially considering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' poor track record in establishing law and order.Israel may eventually sign a treaty. But it will not uproot tens of thousands of settlers and hand over territory to the Palestinians unless it can be assured that the evacuated land won't be used as launching grounds for attacks — as happened after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Israel will also likely insist on continued control of the airspace above a Palestinian state, that such a state not have an army and that Israel maintain a military presence in strategically sensitive areas of the West Bank. The Palestinians will not easily accept any of these demands. The two sides agreed at Annapolis to use the so-called road map peace plan as a guide for negotiations, with its key requirements that Israel stop expanding West Bank settlements and that the Palestinians rein in militants. Israel insists that stopping violence from Gaza must be part of the Palestinians' obligations. It's not clear how Abbas could accomplish this, with Hamas in control of the coastal territory after having routed Abbas' forces there in June. Israel and the West are hoping to weaken Hamas' hold on Gaza by propping up Abbas in the West Bank. They may also seek to co-opt Syria, a key backer of Hamas, in an effort to neutralize the Islamic militants. Syria was among the 16 Arab countries participating in this week's summit.
Hamas already appears to be running into trouble in Gaza amid a devastating international boycott, and on Wednesday a senior Hamas official said his group might be willing to cooperate with Abbas.
Still, it will be extremely difficult for Abbas to make peace with Israel as long as he controls only part of his territory. He can negotiate. He cannot deliver, said Israeli political analyst Yossi Alpher. Steven Gutkin is the AP's bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories. Associated Press writer Regan E. Doherty contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Bush vows active U.S. role in Mideast peacemaking By Caren Bohan and Tabassum Zakaria NOV 28,07
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush assured Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday the United States would actively engage in renewed peacemaking, despite deep skepticism over chances for a deal before he leaves office. Just 24 hours after pledging to try to forge a treaty by the end of 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Bush for the ceremonial resumption of the first formal peace talks in seven years.The White House meeting capped a three-day diplomatic flurry, including a 44-nation Middle East conference, that underscored Bush's aim to achieve in his final 14 months in office what has eluded U.S. leaders for decades.Once wary of taking a hands-on role in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, Bush said, I wouldn't be standing here if I didn't believe peace was possible.Shoulder to shoulder with the two leaders in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said, One thing I've assured both gentlemen is that the United States will be actively engaged in the process and we will use our power to help as you come up with the necessary decisions to lay out a Palestinian state that will live side by side in peace with Israel.
But there was no sign Bush was planning the kind of sustained personal engagement he had shunned after his predecessor, Bill Clinton, failed to broker a peace accord in 2000 in the twilight of his presidency.Olmert and Abbas smiled stiffly at Bush's words but did not shake hands, as they did awkwardly at Tuesday's international conference in Annapolis, Maryland.After the White House event, the two sides will continue with a meeting on December 12 in Jerusalem. But serious questions remain about the viability of the new peace effort.All three leaders -- Bush, Abbas and Olmert -- are politically weak at home, raising doubts whether they can make good on their promises, and lingering mistrust between Israel and Palestinians will make any progress difficult.
In a sign of the obstacles ahead, Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip rejected the new peace drive. Violence also flared, with Israeli missiles killing two Hamas naval officers in the southern part of the coastal territory.In Brussels, Karen AbuZayd, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which administers aid to Palestinian refugees, said a peace process that does not include Hamas was not viable at all.
CORE ISSUES SKIRTED
Bush, who faced criticism for not doing more sooner to resolve the conflict, had opened Tuesday's conference at the U.S. Naval Academy by reading a joint statement painstakingly negotiated by the two sides but which skirted the core issues that divide them.
U.S. officials insisted, however, that all substantive issues would be tackled in future talks.Beyond accepting a framework for peace talks, neither Olmert nor Abbas gave any sign of ceding ground on their main differences when they addressed the conference on Tuesday.But the Arab presence, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, gave a boost to Bush's highest-profile peace drive.Another motivation for many participants was the desire to offset the growing regional influence of Iran, a U.S. foe and outspoken opponent of peace efforts with the Jewish state.
Trying to reinforce the seriousness of the U.S. commitment, the Bush administration planned to name Marine Gen. James Jones, who was NATO commander in Europe until 2006, to help monitor some aspects of the peace process, officials said. Still, some analysts were skeptical. There is, I think, considerable doubt remaining about whether the administration is prepared to take on the heavy lifting ... to make this work, said Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution, an independent Washington thinktank. Bush hopes for a foreign policy success to polish his legacy, but the unpopular war in Iraq, the main factor in his low public approval ratings, could limit his room to maneuver. Olmert's public standing is also low, partly due to last year's Lebanon war, and rightist coalition partners have warned against concessions. Abbas lost control of Gaza to Hamas Islamists in June and only holds sway in the West Bank. The Annapolis accord emerged from last-minute talks on a joint document meant to chart the course for negotiating the toughest final status issues of the conflict -- Jerusalem, borders, security and the fate of Palestinian refugees. The declaration was mostly vague about the U.S. role. Rice will take the lead for the Bush administration, and the White House has declined to say whether the president might travel to the region to help shepherd the process. The Israelis appeared to have come away with a greater share of what they were seeking at Annapolis, and many commentators in the Arab world dismissed the conference as a media event designed to repair Bush's image damaged by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller, Adam Entous, Sue Pleming, Mohammed Assadi, Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Caren Bohan and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Reza Derakhshi in Tehran, Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Rebecca Harrison in Jerusalem; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by David Storey)
President Bush Makes Remarks on Annapolis Conference
Rose Garden NOV 28,072:04 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you; Mr. President. A series of successful meetings today with these leaders. Yesterday was an important day, and it was a hopeful beginning. No matter how important yesterday was, it's not nearly as important as tomorrow and the days beyond.
I appreciate the commitment of these leaders to working hard to achieve peace. I wouldn't be standing here if I didn't believe that peace was possible, and they wouldn't be here either if they didn't think peace was possible.
It's very important for the international community to support these two leaders during the bilateral negotiations that will take place. And one thing I've assured both gentlemen is that the United States will be actively engaged in the process, that we will use our power to help you, as you come up with the necessary decisions to lay out a Palestinian state that will live side by side in peace with Israel.
And so I wish you all the best. I appreciate your courage and leadership. It's an honor to call you friends. And it's an honor to have watched you yesterday as you laid out your respective visions for something we all want, which is peace in the Holy Land.
Thank you very much.
END 2:06 P.M. EST
