PEACE DOUBTFUL THIS YEAR

Israeli, Palestinian peace deal unlikely before Bush leaves SEPT 25,08

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians have made progress since last year's talks in Annapolis, but were unlikely to produce a comprehensive deal before the next US president takes office, lawmakers were told Thursday. Since Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and then Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert relaunched the peace process in Maryland in November, we have seen significant advances ... and substantial progress, a top US diplomat in charge of Middle Eastern affairs, David Welch, told a Senate subcommittee.Among the advances were improved security cooperation between Israelis and the Palestinians and greater fiscal oversight in the Palestinian Authority, said Welch.But he fudged when pressed by Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, and Republican Chuck Hagel on whether the key goal set at Annapolis -- a comprehensive peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians by the time President George W. Bush leaves office in January -- was within reach.We have, I think it's 116 days left of the Bush administration, said Kerry.We have 40-plus days until there's an election here; we may or may not see a government in the next weeks in Israel, and President Abbas? Let's see what happens when his term is up in January, he said, pointing to some of the political potholes on the road to a peace deal.Hagel said he has seen a downturn in stability and security in the Middle East during Bush's two, four-year terms, and repeated Kerry's question about what results could be expected from the peace process before the next US president takes office in January.Welch answered: I would like to see that this negotiating track that we embarked on does move ahead.Ideally, it would produce an agreement. If it doesn't, it must be continued, and continued on a substantial basis. We try to build that every single day, he said.The career diplomat said the fact that a state called Palestine has become an articulated goal was another sign that the peace process was moving forward.At last year's meeting in Maryland, which ended a seven-year freeze in the peace process, the Israelis and Palestinians agreed to create a mechanism to monitor implementation of a roadmap for peace, which calls for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel.

But Kerry said the acceptance of the idea of a Palestinian state doesn't satisfy anybody any more in terms of accomplishment or big change.Ground on that notion was broken a long time ago. The debate now is over how Swiss-cheesy this new state is going to look -- what sort of rights of access are going to go with it, what happens to the (Israeli) settlements, and so forth, he said.During a visit to Washington in April -- five months after Annapolis -- Abbas told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the continuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank were the main obstacle to a peace deal.

U.N. Security Council to debate Israel settlements By Louis Charbonneau
Thu Sep 25, 7:09 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council has agreed to end months of silence and discuss Israeli settlement activities on land the Palestinians want for a future state, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Thursday. The meeting will take place on Friday, the same day the Middle East Quartet -- Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations -- will convene on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the peace process.The meeting was requested by Saudi Arabia with the backing of Arab foreign ministers, who met in New York to discuss the settlements issue on Wednesday.Western diplomats said the council was not expected to take any action by issuing a joint statement or resolution. The 15-nation Security Council has been unable to reach a consensus on anything related to the Middle East for months.In an interview with al-Hurra television, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made no attempt to hide the fact that she would saw no point in Friday's council session.At this point I just don't see the value in doing so, she said. But the Security Council can take these issues up at any time.But let's take it up in the Quartet, which is the appropriate and internationally recognized forum for these issues, she added.The main reason for the council deadlock, Western diplomats say, has been U.S. frustration with debates on the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip earlier this year and Arab states' refusal to denounce the militant group Hamas, which seized power in Gaza last year and advocates destroying Israel.The U.S. delegation has complained that council sessions on the issue have not been constructive, mostly due to the presence on the council of Libya, a long-time foe of the Jewish state.Arab diplomats have accused Washington of blocking council discussion of Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, a problem they say is undermining the peace process.Israel says the Palestinians have failed to meet their obligation to rein in militants.According to a report by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, Israeli authorities and settlers have seized land in the West Bank for security zones around Jewish settlements beyond an Israeli-built barrier.The barrier is deemed illegal by the World Court because it is being built in part on occupied territory, but Israel says it is necessary to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out.The Palestinians condemned the project as a land grab and say settlement expansion could deny them a viable state. (Additional reporting by Haitham Haddadin; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Bush meets with Middle Eastern leaders By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Thu Sep 25, 5:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON - In separate meetings with Middle East leaders Thursday, President Bush applauded Lebanon's efforts to forge a national reconciliation and told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the administration has not given up hope on an agreement to create a Palestinian state. I appreciate your determination and your desire to have a Palestinian state, Bush told Abbas in front of reporters before an Oval Office meeting. I share that desire with you. It's not easy.Bush said the administration will continue to work with Palestinian authorities on security matters and on helping to coordinate international economic assistance.As you know, I've got four more months left in office and I'm hopeful that the vision that you and I have worked on can come to pass, he added.Abbas, seated beside Bush, told the president that he was thankful for U.S. support.Hope remains, Abbas said. We cannot live without hope.According to Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who attended the meeting, Abbas said Palestinians are seeking a comprehensive agreement on all the issues, without any exception. Either there will be an agreement on all the issues or there will be no agreement.Mideast peace talks were relaunched at a U.S.-hosted summit last November, and with prodding from the U.S., Israel and the Palestinians set a year-end target for reaching a final peace accord that would end six decades of hostilities.Despite months of negotiations, there have been no apparent breakthroughs, and the sides remain at odds over key issues like the final borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, the competing claims to Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees.Negotiations have been stalled by the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who stepped down amid a string of corruption allegations. Tzipi Livni, Israel's prime minister-designate, has signaled that she will keep peace negotiations going.In an earlier meeting Thursday, Bush lauded efforts by Lebanon's new president to promote reconciliation in a country the United States considers key to combatting extremism in the Middle East.In remarks at the outset of the Oval Office meeting with President Michel Suleiman, Bush said he has watched carefully the public statements that Suleiman has made since taking office in May.Your statements impressed me and we're most impressed by the national dialogue that you're holding in an attempt to seek reconciliation, Bush said. The United States is proud to stand by your side. Our mission is your mission: a country that is strong and capable, a country where people can make a peace.

Suleiman, seen as relatively friendly with Syria, was installed as president in a compromise after Hezbollah blocked pro-Western factions from electing a politician who took a harder-line stance against Syria. Clashes last May between Syrian-backed Hezbollah and pro-government loyalists in Beirut and other areas left 81 people dead and more than 200 wounded.Sitting beside Bush in the Oval Office, Suleiman said his country shares many U.S. values, including the promotion of liberty and the fight against terrorism. And he thanked Bush for his administration's support of the Lebanese government, particularly efforts to bolster the Lebanese army.There are so many things in common between the American people and the Lebanese people. We are here also to reaffirm our rights to have a prosperous Lebanon, a democratic Lebanon, Suleiman said. Mr. President, we are also here to affirm the need to liberate all Lebanese territories and also to make it clear that the future of Palestinian refugees is in their homeland, not in Lebanon.The U.S. financial crisis took center stage at the White House later Thursday when presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, and congressional leaders met with Bush on a rescue plan for financial markets.Those meetings were last-minute additions to Bush's schedule. Already on the calendar were Bush's meetings with Abbas, Suleiman and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in Washington to rally congressional support for a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.

Israeli historian critical of settlements wounded in bomb attack by Jean-Luc Renaudie Thu Sep 25, 2:13 PM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell, known for his criticism of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, was wounded when a pipe bomb exploded at his home on Thursday, police said. Sternhell suffered light injuries to his right leg when the bomb exploded as he was trying to close the door to his house and was hospitalised in Jerusalem.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said an investigation was underway and that police searching for evidence found fliers in nearby streets calling for the killing of left-wing activists.We found fliers offering a reward of 1.1 million shekels (320,000 dollars, 221,000 euros) for attacking and killing members of Peace Now, he said.Peace Now, an Israeli rights group devoted to ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories, blamed extreme right-wing groups for the attack.Law enforcement authorities must abandon their lenient policy when it comes to law-breakers from within the settler community and their supporters, the group said.Those who don't enforce the law on violent settlers in the territories will find (themselves) with a Jewish terror organisation in the heart of Israel.

Military radio also quoted Sternhell as saying: If the attack was carried out by a certain political movement, then we must mobilise in order to avoid the collapse of our democracy.Sternhell frequently contributes to the liberal Haaretz newspaper, writing columns critical of Israel's right-wing settlement movement and in favour of a negotiated peace with the Palestinians.In one of his more controversial articles he said: If the Palestinians exhibited more foresight, they would have concentrated their actions against the settlements instead of attacking women and children (in Israel).He has also staunchly opposed the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, calling it both immoral and ineffective.Interim prime minister Ohud Olmert and his would-be successor were among several Israeli figures who condemned the attack.Olmert called for a speedy investigation to bring to justice the culprits, military radio said, while Tzipi Livni said in a statement that the attack was inadmissible.Ultra-nationalist lawmaker Geula Cohen condemned the attack in an interview with public radio but denounced Sternhell's political positions.Of course I strongly condemn this act, but we must not forget that Zeev Sternhell has in the past called for tanks to destroy the settlements and incited (Palestinian) terror organisations to kill settlers, she said.Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned that we will not allow anyone, from any dank corner of Israeli society, to persecute anyone else, he was quoted as saying by Ynet News.A group of protesters meanwhile demonstrated in Jerusalem agains the attack.Sternhall, who was born in Poland in 1935, fled the Nazi Holocaust. He teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialising in the emergence of fascism, and is an expert on extreme right-wing ideologies in France. In February he was awarded the 2008 Israel Prize in political science.

Diplomats: US asks IAEA for full Syria report By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 25, 2:12 PM ET

VIENNA, Austria - The United States asked the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency Thursday for a fuller accounting of its probe of Syria's alleged efforts to secretly develop a plutonium-producing facility at a site bombed by Israel. A senior Syrian envoy in turn accused Washington of using twisted logic in pressuring his country instead of condemning the Israeli attack.When you shield the aggressor and when you accuse the victim it is ... being not only an accessory to the crimes committed, but also encouraging more crimes, Syrian Ambassador Mohammed Badi Khattab told The Associated Press.He urged whatever U.S. administration takes office next year to play a more active role in Turkish-mediated Syrian-Israeli efforts to reach a peace agreement.Without the U.S. being in the negotiations, there is no guarantee that what you agree upon will be implemented, he said. Because the U.S. is the only country that has this unique relationship with Israel, ... (it) has the duty to influence its position in moving forward, said Khattab.The United States has hung back from directly engaging Syria, insisting it must stop support for Lebanon's Hezbollah and other groups labeled by Washington as terrorists.Khattab is also his country's chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He spoke after U.S. chief representative Gregory L. Schulte suggested his country was dissatisfied with a brief oral report on the status of an IAEA probe of allegations that Syria was working on covert nuclear program that included a nearly finished reactor bombed by Israel a year ago.Given the gravity of the issue ... the United States looks forward to a comprehensive report ... detailing, in writing, the status of the investigation at the November meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board, Schulte told board members, in comments to the closed meeting made available to reporters.

Detailing allegations of months of efforts by Syria to alter the Al Kibar site and rid it of any evidence it was a nuclear facility, Schulte asked: What does Syria have to hide? In his oral report Monday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the board meeting that preliminary results from environmental samples taken in June from the bombed site came up with no indication to back the claims that the destroyed target was a nuclear facility.He also said that Syria would decide on whether to provide more information and allow further IAEA visits depending on the results of the samples taken during the first visit — implying that Damascus could shut the doors on the probe if the all the samples come up empty.Pressed whether Syria would permit further visits, Khattab said: We are not opening the door, and we are not closing the door until after the results come in.The issue is significant because of concerns that the investigation could grind to a halt if the samples show no nuclear-related traces and Syria uses that finding to declare the probe closed.That could cripple international efforts to probe whether the site in a remote part of the Syrian desert was a near-finished plutonium-producing reactor built with North Korean help, and that Damascus continues to hide linked facilities.IAEA inspectors looking for unreported nuclear activity usually test for radioactivity. But in this case, their mission was more difficult.According to intelligence given to the Vienna-based agency by the U.S., Israel and a third, unidentified country, the alleged reactor was not yet completed at the time of the Sept. 6, 2007, bombing. That meant no nuclear material would have been present.So the inspectors looked for minute quantities of graphite, which is used as a cooling element in the type of North Korean prototype that was allegedly being built.But — if they were interested in a cover-up — the Syrians would have scoured the region to bury, wash away and otherwise remove any such traces.

Israeli professor wounded in Jerusalem bomb attack By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 25, 10:57 AM ET

JERUSALEM - A pipe bomb exploded Thursday outside the home of a prominent Israeli scholar and outspoken critic of Jewish West Bank settlements, lightly wounding him in what police suspect was an attack by Jewish extremists. Investigators found posters in Professor Zeev Sternhell's neighborhood offering a $320,000 prize to anyone who kills a member of Peace Now, a dovish Israeli group whose views Sternhell shares.If extremists were behind the attack, it would be one of the worst instances of political violence inside Israel since an opponent of peace negotiations with the Palestinians murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.Human rights groups say settlers have been increasingly using violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, in what appears to be an attempt to deter Israeli authorities from making any attempt to evacuate settlements.The settlement movement fervently opposes the peace talks and rejects the territorial withdrawal a deal would require.A person close to Sternhell's family said, without elaborating, that the professor had received threats in the past. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of the incident's political sensitivity.The bomb was planted on the doorstep of Sternhell's home in a quiet Jerusalem neighborhood, exploding when he opened the door, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. The assailants were not apprehended.

Sternhell had minor shrapnel wounds in one leg and will remain hospitalized at least until Friday, authorities said.An internationally known scholar on fascism and a Holocaust survivor, he was awarded the country's highest honor, the Israel Prize, this year. The award drew criticism from settlers and their supporters.National police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators believe the attack was ideological.Itamar Ben-Gvir, an activist with a fringe settler group calling itself the National Jewish Front, said I don't denounce this incident, but say categorically that we are not involved.In a statement, Peace Now identified Sternhell as a veteran supporter and said Israeli authorities shared responsibility for the attack for not cracking down on settler violence in the West Bank.Peace Now's head said he was placed under police protection after the attack, but Rosenfeld could not confirm that.The attack drew condemnation from Israeli politicians, including some from hard-line parties.Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni said in a statement that Israel could not gloss over the attack, which she described as intolerable.It's the responsibility of the state and its people to denounce these events before they occur, Livni said.Settlers regularly clash with Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the West Bank, but the use of weapons against political opponents in Israel is uncommon.There have, however, been precedents. A pro-settlement extremist shot and killed Rabin, who was spearheading efforts to strike a peace deal. Another extremist killed a member of Peace Now with a grenade at a 1983 peace protest.

Israel's Peres says Ahmadinejad taking world for a fool Thu Sep 25, 4:53 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres sharpened his attack on Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday, accusing him of taking the world for a fool in his statements to the UN General Assembly. (Ahmadinejad) has committed a fatal error, and is taking the world for a fool. He thinks he is an absolute prophet, proclaiming that there is no more hope for the United States or Israel, Peres told Israeli public radio.It is shameful to Islam, to all religions, to the United States, and to democracy. His voice does not come from heaven but hell and one day it will pass away like a breeze, he said in the interview conducted in New York.Israel has long considered Iran its greatest threat, both because of Tehran's accelerating nuclear programme and repeated statements by its leaders predicting the demise of the Jewish state.In a blistering speech before the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Peres said Iran was at the centre of violence and fanaticism and had built a danger to the entire world.Israel and the United States accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran has insisted its programme is entirely peaceful and vowed to proceed despite three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions.Israel is the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed state with an estimated arsenal of 200 warheads.Neither the United States nor Israel has ruled out a military response to the Iranian nuclear standoff, and on Thursday Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said all options remain on the table.Iran continues to exert every effort in its activities to achieve a nuclear weapons capability, he said in a statement.For now there is still time for addressing the issue diplomatically, but we believe we must not renounce any option and we do not think anyone else in the world should either, he added.In his own address to the assembly on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad lashed out at what he called international bullying and vowed to press ahead with Iran's nuclear drive.As for Israel, he said the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters.

Aid agencies say Middle East peace Quartet failing Thu Sep 25, 12:09 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Aid agencies accused the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators on Thursday of failing in its mission and urged it to show it was up to the task.

The agencies issued a critical report just before the Quartet -- Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations -- meets in New York on Friday to discuss the peace process.The Middle East Quartet is failing -- making inadequate progress toward improving the lives of Palestinians (and not) improving the prospects for peace, a coalition of 21 aid agencies and human rights organizations said in a statement.CARE International U.K., Christian Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children were among the agencies behind the report.They said this week's meeting would take place at a critical moment for the quartet to demonstrate that it can play an effective role in bringing peace to the Middle East.Unless there is a swift and dramatic improvement, it will be necessary to question what the future is for the Middle East Quartet, it said.U.S. President George W. Bush launched Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at Annapolis, near Washington, last November, seeking a deal on the establishment of a Palestinian state before he leaves office next January.The agencies said the deadline seemed unlikely to be met.They added that the visible progress on the ground demanded by the Quartet when it met in Berlin in June had not materialized.On five of the Quartet's 10 objectives, such as improving access to Palestinian territories, there had been no change or a marked deterioration, they said.

Despite efforts by Quartet members to signal opposition to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, there had been an acceleration in construction and no serious attempts by the Israeli authorities to dismantle outposts, they said.The Quartet had failed to secure the removal of Israeli checkpoints and other obstacles that would allow Palestinians to see a tangible improvement in their daily lives, the agencies added.There is no new reality in the West Bank: The economy continues to stagnate and the blockade of Gaza continues, the report said.The Quartet had secured substantial funding pledges but this had not yet led to the prompt delivery of projects or improved the lives of Palestinians, they said.(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Israeli police break up Jerusalem terrorist cell Wed Sep 24, 2:06 PM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police announced on Wednesday the smashing of a terrorist cell from east Jerusalem believed responsible for the killing of two border policemen and of preparing other attacks. Alleged cell leader Mohammed Halal Abu Sneineh, 21, from the Anata neighbourhood, and two other unnamed suspects were arrested around 10 days ago on charges of murder and attempted murder, a police source said.Four other suspected members of the ring are already in jail.The Jerusalem district court initially ordered a blackout on news of their detentions at the request of the domestic security agency, Shin Beth.The two policemen were killed in east Jerusalem, one in January and the other in July. The three suspects are also suspected of wounding two others and of planning an attack on yet another one.

Jerusalem police commander Aharon Franco told journalists on Wednesday that 250 residents of east Jerusalem had been arrested on security grounds since the beginning of 2008.News of the arrests comes just two days after a young man from east Jerusalem rammed his car into a group of soldiers, injuring 13 people before being shot dead.Exactly two months earlier, on July 22, a Palestinian wounded 16 people when he turned an earth mover on passers-by and vehicles in Jerusalem.That incident mimicked one 10 days earlier in which another Palestinian, also in an earth mover, killed three Israelis and injured more than 45.On March 6, a Palestinian gunman killed eight students at a Jewish religious school in the worst attack Jerusalem had seen in years.All three assailants were shot dead immediately after the attacks and all were from east Jerusalem, prompting widespread calls for a return to a policy of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians who launch deadly attacks.

Israel's Olmert to be quizzed again in graft probes Wed Sep 24, 1:01 PM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Ehud Olmert, who stepped down as Israel's prime minister, will be questioned next week for the eighth time since claims of graft emerged in May, the police said on Wednesday. The questioning will be conducted next Thursday morning (October 2) at the official residence of the prime minister, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.Earlier this month police recommended indicting Olmert over suspicions he had unlawfully accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from a US businessman and for billing the same overseas trips several times over, allegedly using the ill-gotten gains to pay for private trips.Olmert, 62, insists he is innocent but stepped down on Sunday after his centrist Kadima elected Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as new party leader. He nevertheless remains interim prime minister until a new government is formed.Olmert has already been questioned seven times since allegations emerged in May that he had accepted funds illegally from wealthy US financier Morris Talansky to finance his political campaigns and his lifestyle.

Palestinians win Livni pledge on talks By Wafa Amr
Tue Sep 23, 6:18 PM ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie won an assurance from Israeli prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni on Tuesday that peace talks will not stall while she tries to form a new coalition government. in an interview with Reuters following their meeting, Qurie warned that violence could erupt if the talks collapsed.The Palestinians will continue to negotiate. But, if the talks reached a dead end, what do we do? Capitulate? Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right, Qurie said.He said he had had a good first meeting with Livni, his Israeli negotiating counterpart and currently foreign minister, since her appointment as prime minister-designate on Monday.Livni reassured me she would continue the peace process without accepting any conditions.In a statement issued by her office, Livni urged the Palestinians not to resort to violence which will not achieve for the Palestinians any national objective.Israeli officials denied that Livni made any promises about the contents of the negotiations going forward. Some prospective coalition partners object to including Jerusalem in the talks.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said after the meeting: Livni assured her Palestinian counterpart that the meetings and working sessions will continue in the same format, with no change, even through the period in which she is trying to put together a governing coalition.But he added: She made no promises, such as the one he (Qurie) alluded to, concerning the contents of the talks.Referring to the goal set by U.S. President George W. Bush last November, Qurie said he had great doubts about finalizing a deal this year.

He said Palestinian leaders were considering their options if talks failed to produce a deal that would lead to independence.If they lost hope in negotiations and became convinced Israel was not prepared to end its occupation, renewed attacks against Israelis were possible.Asked whether he was saying the Palestinians might resume suicide bombings and attacks inside Israel, Qurie responded: All forms of resistance.Livni, now trying to form a new coalition government to carry on peace talks that have so far produced little progress, made a similar warning in August.

PREOCCUPATIONS

Bush launched Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at Annapolis last November, seeking a deal on the establishment of a Palestinian state before he leaves office in January 2009.Qurie said talks on sensitive final status issues such as the fate of Jerusalem, refugees, and borders have been marred by continued Jewish settlement expansion on occupied land.The change of government in Israel following the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert makes it difficult for Israel to make decisions under such conditions, and time is running out, he added. The Palestinians were also unable to make decisions, as their attention was diverted by internal divisions as a result of Hamas' coup in Gaza, and power struggles, Qurie said.

Israel has said it would not implement any deal it signs with the Palestinians until the government of President Mahmoud Abbas re-establishes control of the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist Hamas group seized in June 2007. Qurie said Palestinian options include abandoning the proposed two-state deal for a one-state solution absorbing Jews and Arabs into a single country -- something few Jews are willing to countenance. Olmert has proposed a partial deal that would set aside the most intractable issue -- divided Jerusalem. Qurie said partial deals only brought disasters in the past. We want a detailed, comprehensive accord that would end occupation, he said. (Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Jon Boyle)

German FM eyes peace progress with new Israeli goverment Tue Sep 23, 1:10 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday said a Middle East peace deal was unlikely this year, but hoped the process could be kickstarted as soon as a new Israeli government is formed. Steinmeier told reporters at the start of the United Nations General Assembly's annual debate that he would be meeting regional leaders throughout the week to assess progress and offer support for reconciliation efforts.It is an opportunity to see where we are almost a year after the Annapolis conference, he said, referring to a US-hosted conference in November when the goal of a Mideast peace deal by the end of 2008 was set.My view is that we have not come as far as we would like but we have come farther than many pessimists feared last year.Steinmeier is to meet here Tuesday with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem and on Wednesday with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

He urged the quick formation of a new Israeli government following the resignation of scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday.Steinmeier added that the Palestinians had made progress in stabilising the West Bank with better security and the beginnings of economic growth.Germany has pushed for the so-called Middle East Quartet grouping the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union to redouble its efforts to reach a durable peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.Berlin hosted a security conference in June where international donors committed 242 million dollars to bolster the Palestinian police and justice system to help pave the way to a viable state.Steinmeier said it would likely only be sensible for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to call a new Quartet meeting when a new Israeli government is in place.He hailed Turkish efforts since May to mediate between Israel and Syria as a major contribution to regional stability, and hoped further progress could be made this week so Syria and Lebanon could open diplomatic relations this year.