RICE TEXT VIDEO AT UN
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/12/113242.htm
RICE QUARTET REMARKS
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/12/113219.htm
RICE INTERVIEW DEC 9,08
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/12/113016.htm
QUARTET PRESS STATEMENT
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/dec/113216.htm
BUSH TEXT AT ARAB EMERITES
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080113-1.html
BUSH ON MIDEAST
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/mideast/
UN council endorses US-led Middle East peace talks
Tue 16 Dec 2008, 17:58 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday declared that U.S.-brokered negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are irreversible and urged both sides to redouble efforts to secure peace.The declaration was at the heart of a resolution drafted by the United States and Russia. The resolution, which passed 14-0 with Israel's enemy Libya abstaining, was the first adopted on the Middle East crisis in nearly five years.The U.S. and other delegations had hoped for a unanimous vote in favor of the two-page text.Libyan U.N. Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi criticized the text for not condemning Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, which he described as basically a crime against humanity.Disregarding such practices is an invitation to continue such behavior, he told the council.
Ettalhi had wanted the resolution to mention several Palestinian complaints, including the blockade of the Gaza Strip and Israeli settlement in Palestinian areas.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed the resolution, but added that he hoped it will not be added to the archives of other resolutions that have not been implemented so far.U.S. officials said the point of the resolution was to endorse the goals of talks on Palestinian statehood launched in November 2007 by the administration of President George W. Bush in Annapolis, Maryland, while avoiding specific disagreements.The adopted resolution only indirectly addresses the complaints of the Palestinians and Israelis by urging them to refrain from any steps that could undermine confidence or prejudice the outcome of the negotiations.It recognizes progress made in the talks and calls for an intensification of diplomatic efforts aimed at securing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
BUSH LEGACY
The Republican administration had wanted a deal on Palestinian statehood by the end of this year but all sides now say that will not happen. Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, when Democrat Barack Obama will become U.S. president.U.N. diplomats have said the Bush administration, highly unpopular in the Arab world, hopes this resolution will help secure it a positive legacy for its Middle East policies and counter criticism it has faced for its 2003 invasion of Iraq.U.S. Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice described the situation in the Middle East as catastrophic when Bush took over from his predecessor Bill Clinton in 2001.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the lack of a peace deal so far did not mean the Annapolis talks failed.The Annapolis process has not delivered a Palestinian state but the absence of an Annapolis process would have left us much worse off, he said. (Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau; Editing by Howard Goller)
New resolution on Mideast peace passes at UN,With Bush set to leave, the administration tries to nudge forward the process it started in 2007.By Howard LaFranchi Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the December 17, 2008 edition
United Nations, N.Y. - The Bush administration, looking to shore up its foreign-policy legacy, and the international community, hoping to influence the future Obama White House, are teaming up to press the Middle East peace process forward. It's an against-the-odds attempt. But the first United Nations Security Council resolution on the peace process in five years – since the diplomacy-stalling Iraq war in 2003 – was approved Tuesday. The vote was 14 to 0, with Libya abstaining. The idea is to show broad support for keeping the peace process that was started by President Bush a year ago on its rails into the next US presidency. The resolution, sponsored by the US and Russia, has little binding impact but sends a number of signals. First, it indicates, especially to the Israelis and Palestinians, that even though the so-called Annapolis process did not result in a peace agreement by the end of Mr. Bush's term, progress has been made and should be built upon. And second, a signal goes out to President-elect Obama that the peace process should not start over from Square 1 when he takes office. The irony of this second point is that it is promoted in particular by the Bush administration, which wanted nothing to do with the negotiation structure left behind by the Clinton White House.
The peace process is confronting a period of transition on more fronts than one, as Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the UN, noted repeatedly before the vote. We believe that the effort has to be pinned down, and it has to continue without a pause, which may be there because of some political circumstances – change of administration in the United States, elections in Israel, possible elections in the Palestinian autonomy, he said. But the political context is just one reason that some see the resolution having little practical impact. Arab officials who attended a Monday meeting of the Quartet of powers shepherding the peace process – the US, Russia, the UN, and the European Union – expressed frustration over the lack of major progress toward a settlement and a Palestinian state. The resolution could even set back progress if it had the effect of enshrining an unsuccessful approach to peace, some analysts say. A Security Council resolution that provides explicit support for the two-state solution is a good thing. But if it locks in a format or negotiating approach, in particular one that after a year has provided ample proof of not working, then it is a bad thing, says Philip Wilcox, a former US diplomat who is now president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace in Washington. Condoleezza Rice, who was in New York Monday and Tuesday for what could be her last appearance at the UN as secretary of State, defines the Annapolis process as both bottom-up and top-down – meaning it is not simply the US and other powers knocking the parties' heads and telling them what they have to do. Indeed, Secretary Rice has been criticized for leaving the two sides on their own in negotiations and not playing the traditional American go-between. But, she insists, considerable progress [has been made] on the core issues.
The two sides have made some progress on incremental issues, Mr. Wilcox says, but none on the core issues – such as borders, status of Jerusalem, and Israeli settlements. Israel is supportive of the resolution, said Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the UN, speaking to reporters Tuesday in New York. One reason for Israel's stance, she says, is that the resolution gives support to the Annapolis process and its emphasis on bilateral (instead of multilateral) negotiations. We are committed to the peace process, but the peace process is something that has to go on between the parties themselves, Ambassador Shalev says. There can be some kind of pushing from the outside, but in the end, it must be the two parties that reach an accord. Even some officials who believe considerable progress has been made over the past year – for example, in creating viable Palestinian security forces in the West Bank – say the resolution reflects the wishes of its sponsors and in particular the personal drive of Rice. This has become something of a personal thing for her, said a senior European official, who wished not to be named because the diplomatic discussions over the resolution were ongoing. You have to give [Rice] credit: She has managed to push the parties further down the road.
HERBERT GRUBEL ON THE AMERO - VIDEO
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2008/12/father-of-amero-herbert-grubel-speaks.html#links
WHEN MESSIAH COMES - AUDIO
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2008/12/when-messiah-comes.html#links
Palestinian killed after rocket fire raises concern over Gaza truce by Sakher Abu El Oun DEC 18,08
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes conducted two nighttime air strikes against the Gaza Strip following rocket fire against Israel, witnesses said Thursday.The raids, which targeted metal workshops in the towns of Jabaliya and Khan Yunis in the north and south caused extensive material damage but no injuries, witnesses and medical sources said.The Israeli military confirmed the air strikes and said the workshops were used to manufacture rockets.News of the bombing raids comes after a Palestinian man was killed during an earlier Israeli air bombardment on Gaza Wednesday evening.
Falak Okel, 47, died and his son and daughter were injured, when a rocket struck their house in Beit Lahya in the north of the Gaza Strip, the same source said.
Witnesses said Okel did not belong to any armed group.Gaza militants had fired a barrage of rockets at Israel, one of which blew up near a supermarket lightly wounding two people and fuelling concern that violence could flare up as a six-month truce ends this week.Two people suffered shrapnel wounds and three cars were damaged as one of 19 rockets fired at southern Israel struck outside a supermarket in the often targeted city of Sderot, the army said.Israeli forces immediately launched an air strike in northern Gaza, hitting a rocket launcher that was about to fire, a military spokeswoman said.This requires a reaction, and it will come, warned Israel's interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The escalation makes us even more convinced there can be no formal truce if it not observed on the ground.Islamic Jihad said its armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades, fired rockets in retaliation for Monday's killing by Israeli forces of one of its members in the occupied West Bank.
The radical movement had claimed similar attacks on Monday, which prompted two Israeli air strikes in Gaza.The attacks came just ahead of the conclusion of the six-month ceasefire that went into effect on June 19.Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza, has spoken out against extending the Egyptian-mediated truce, but it indicated it has yet to take a final decision.Friday, December 19 is the last day of the calm, said Ismail Radwan, a Hamas leader in Gaza, adding that the Islamist movement will respond to any aggression by the occupying forces against our people.
Israeli officials have said they want to continue the truce but warned that they would not hesitate to use military force should Gaza militants fail to halt rocket and mortar attacks.Several ministers though have called for a tougher line against Gaza militants, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who hopes to become premier after February 10 elections, has said Israel cannot allow Gaza to remain in the hands of Hamas.Since the truce went into effect, Palestinian militants have fired more than 320 mortar rounds and rockets at southern Israel, according to the military. Following a November 4 surge in violence, Israel has completely sealed off Gaza almost every time rockets or mortar rounds were fired. The closures prevent the delivery of humanitarian and other supplies which aid agencies say are desperately needed in the impoverished, overcrowded sliver of land crippled by a blockade Israel imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007. Humanitarian agencies and human rights groups have urged Israel to lift the blockade, saying the 1.5 million population of Gaza should not be punished for the actions of armed militants. In an opinion sent to attorney general Menahem Mazuz, Israel's legal watchdog group Gisha warned that the restrictions on the passage of people and goods amounted to a closure imposed for the illegal purpose of collective punishment against innocent civilians.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who headed to Washington on Wednesday, plans to discuss the situation in Gaza during his talks on Friday with US President George W. Bush. Abbas will warn against an Israeli offensive in Gaza and will call for the lifting of the Israeli blockade, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. The president also called for a continuation of the Gaza truce, although he has had no influence in the territory since his forces were driven out when Hamas seized power.
The situation in Gaza, and the divisions between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party have further complicated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that have produced no tangible results since they were revived under US auspices in November 2007. Abbas hopes to rally support for efforts to shield the peace process from a government change in Israel, where right-wing former premier Benjamin Netanyahu leads opinion polls ahead of the February elections. On Tuesday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution stating its commitment to the irreversibility of the bilateral negotiations.
Top US Mideast diplomat quits By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 17, 6:25 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East will step down from his post and move to the private sector at the end of the week, as President-elect Barack Obama's transition team weighs possible successors, State Department officials said Wednesday.David Welch, a career diplomat and assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, has told his staff his last day on the job will be Friday, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity before a formal announcement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, expected Thursday.Welch is the first of the department's assistant secretaries to leave since Obama's election last month.Assistant secretaries of state, like ambassadors, are political appointees and are required to submit resignation letters before a change in the administration. Some, however, are asked to stay on by the incoming administration.A former ambassador to Egypt who also served in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Pakistan, Welch took the top Mideast spot in March 2005 and became the lead U.S. liaison to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that began at a peace conference last November in Annapolis, Md. Earlier this year, Welch also negotiated a comprehensive settlement deal with Libya to compensate the victims of 1980s Libyan-linked terrorism and U.S. retaliatory attacks.
Israel's Kadima party votes Wed Dec 17, 5:27 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Members of Israel's ruling Kadima party on Wednesday elected 22 candidates for the February 10 early legislative elections.About 80,000 party members were eligible to cast their ballots and 45 percent of them turned out at 95 polling stations, the party said.Results were expected to be published early Thursday.The vote was the second held by the centrist party. In September, the party picked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as its new leader to replace scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Livni hopes to take over from Olmert following the February election but faces tough competition from former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud party dominates in opinion polls.In recent weeks, Livni has been perceived as courting right-wing voters in a bid to gain ground against her rival.She has lashed out at Defence Minister and Labour party chief Ehud Barak claiming he was not tough enough in his response to rocket fire by militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.She has also distanced herself from statements by Olmert who said Israel needed to make territorial concessions to the Palestinians in order to achieve peace.
Gaza militants ready for end of truce with Israel By DIAA HADID and IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writers
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Masked Palestinian gunmen practice capturing Israeli soldiers, training videos show how to make grenades and rocket squads fire daily at Israeli border towns.It looks like a warmup for battle.Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers say a six-month cease-fire with Israel formally ends Friday, and Hamas and smaller armed groups won't say clearly whether they will extend it. The vagueness, and rocket fire, could be signs of a new round of fighting, or merely a negotiating tactic to pressure Israel.Under the truce, Gaza militants were to halt rocket fire on Israeli border communities. Israel was to end raids on Gaza and allow more goods and people through its border crossings, sealed after Hamas overran the territory in June 2007.While the Egyptian-brokered truce has brought a drop in violence, neither side is entirely happy. Israel notes the rocket fire hasn't ended, while Palestinians complain the truce didn't benefit Gaza, mainly because the crossings haven't been opened, leading to widespread shortages of basic goods.We aren't encouraged, said Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader.Hamas says the deal expires Friday, but Israel says the unwritten agreement had no expiration date.The truce has increasingly unraveled since early November, when Israeli forces entered Gaza to destroy a tunnel that could have been used in a cross-border raid. In response, Palestinian militants resumed firing rockets at Israel.At least 20 rockets were fired at Israel on Wednesday, the military said. One exploded in the border town of Sderot, wounding two people and damaging a restaurant, police said.There can't be a situation where there is a truce, but the situation on the ground is very different, said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. This demands that we address it, he added, stopping short of pledging retaliation.Israel has renewed airstrikes against rocket squads, aiming at launchers in northern Gaza on Wednesday, the military said. Palestinian hospital officials said a 47-year-old man was killed when a missile hit his house and a balcony collapsed on him.
In the end, the test is the calm and the benefit the residents have had for long months, even though it is relative calm, said Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official who helped negotiate the truce.Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said this week the deal would not be extended, while Gaza's Hamas bosses insist no decision on an extension has been made.Both sides are jockeying for better terms.
Israel wants to be able to enter Gaza to prevent attacks. Hamas wants Israel to open the border crossings.Even before the truce began fraying, Israel did not allow free transfer of goods in and out of Gaza. Since the rocket fire resumed in November, Israel has kept the borders virtually sealed, allowing in only minimal humanitarian aid.Still, the lull has been a relief for people on both sides of the border. A poll Tuesday indicated that 74 percent of Palestinians and 51 percent of Israelis want to extend the cease-fire.The number of casualties and rocket attacks dropped sharply after the truce took hold. From January to June, 338 Palestinians and 16 Israelis were killed in cross-border violence, according to Associated Press figures. Since the truce took effect, 21 Palestinians, most of them militants, were killed by Israeli fire. No Israelis were killed. Israel's military says 1,786 rockets were fired in the first half of 2008, compared to around 199 in the second. During the truce, Hamas has been smuggling weapons through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas militants are also believed to be burrowing tunnels into Israel to carry out attacks. Through the summer, Hamas ran military-style camps for youngsters, and the smaller Islamic Jihad has been practicing tracking down Israel soldiers. In Islamic Jihad training videos obtained by the AP, gunmen captured mock Israeli soldiers hiding in a burned out building and demonstrated how to make grenades and rockets.
Israel has the region's most powerful army and would likely be able to retake Gaza quickly. However, Israeli leaders are hesitant to order a major ground offensive, because they fear high casualties on both sides.
Israel issues new warning on Iranian nuclear arms Wed Dec 17, 2:26 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is warning that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, it could try to attack the United States.Barak said the world should press Iran to stop it from building nuclear weapons.He spoke at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. He said, If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America.Indicating the possibility of a military strike, Barak said, We recommend to the world not to take any option off the table, and we mean what we say.
Palestinians got $1.7bln in aid last year: France Wed Dec 17, 11:11 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – The international community has given 1.7 billion dollars (1.18 billion euros) in aid to the Palestinian Authority over the last year, the French foreign ministry said Wednesday.That was 0.6 billion dollars more than was promised at a major donor conference held last December in Paris, spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said.At that conference, donors promised to provide 7.4 billion dollars over three years, which was considerably more than the 5.6 billion dollars the Palestinians had requested.The donors agreed to allocate 1.1 billion dollars in the first year.Such payments above the promises made are the concrete sign of the exceptional engagement of the international community, Desagneaux said.The conference agreed a package of aid to stabilise the Palestinian economy and try to shore up the faltering peace process with Israel.Palestinian leaders said the money was needed for direct support to the budget to help develop a viable economy and institutions for a future Palestinian state.
Ottawa welcomes UN council's Mideast resolution Tue Dec 16, 11:08 pm ET
OTTAWA, (AFP) – Canada Tuesday welcomed the UN Security Council's first resolution in five years on the Middle East, calling it a positive step toward a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.We fully endorse the irreversibility of the process launched at Annapolis (in the United States) last year and we offer our complete support to the parties in reaching their goal of a comprehensive two-state solution, said Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.Canada commends Council members for their steadfastness in adopting this resolution, he said, stressing that it reflects the international community's commitment to do all that is necessary for peace in the Middle East.Canada supports all efforts, including the Arab Peace Initiative, to enhance peace in the region and sees this resolution as a positive step toward that goal, Cannon said.Tuesday's resolution 1850 endorses principles underpinning Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts at a time of transition with the arrival of a new US administration and early elections scheduled in both Israel and among the Palestinians next year.It calls on both parties to fulfill their obligations ... and refrain from any steps that could undermine confidence or prejudice the outcome of negotiations.The text urges stepped-up diplomatic efforts to foster in parallel with progress in the bilateral process mutual recognition and peaceful coexistence between all states in the region in the context of achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.And it welcomed consideration by the quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- of an international meeting in Moscow next year.
Israeli-Palestinian peace process is irreversible Tue Dec 16, 6:52 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Tuesday stressing that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process initiated by the United States last year is irreversible and urging intensified efforts to achieve peace throughout the Middle East.The vote was 14-0, with Libya abstaining.The resolution — co-sponsored by the United States and Russia — backs the determined efforts by Israel and the Palestinians to conclude a peace treaty and fulfill the vision that they can live peacefully side by side as independent democratic states.The negotiating process launched by President George W. Bush at Annapolis, Md., in November 2007 called for the Israelis and Palestinians to try to reach a final peace deal by the end of 2008.
That goal would have given Bush a diplomatic victory just before leaving office — but it was not to be, despite months of intense negotiations.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said all council members regret an agreement won't be reached this year, but said a serious process is under way and the international community must ensure the talks achieve results.Both Israel and the Palestinians welcomed the resolution.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, expressed hope that the sides will remove all obstacles and reach a peace treaty in 2009. He said the Palestinians are happy that the Security Council — which has not adopted a comprehensive resolution on the Mideast since November 2003 — is actively engaged.In Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who has been Israel's chief peace negotiator since Annapolis, said the resolution gave an important international endorsement for the peace efforts.The Security Council's clear support is a vote of confidence in the process Israel is advancing with the legitimate Palestinian leadership, she said.Livni said negotiations would continue, though talks must be accompanied by the Palestinian government's efforts to crack down on militants and end the Hamas militant group's control of the Gaza Strip.In probably her last U.N. appearance, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the negotiations born at Annapolis give me confidence that the goal of independent Israeli and Palestinian states living in peace and security is not just a vision, but it is a commitment of the parties and of the international community.There can be no turning back the clock, she told the council. We have to continue on the chosen path.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that the issues at the heart of the conflict are complex and will require political will and also courage to resolve.
The resolution declared the council's support for the negotiations initiated at Annapolis, saying it backs Israelis and Palestinians in the determined efforts to reach their goal of concluding a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues, without exception.The sides have failed to bridge disagreements over the so-called core issues, including their final borders and the competing claims to the holy city of Jerusalem.Political uncertainty on both sides has also clouded the picture. Israel is headed toward elections in February, and the front-runner, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been cool to the Annapolis process.The Palestinians, meanwhile, disagree over when the term of Israel's negotiating partner, President Mahmoud Abbas, is to end. Hamas says he must step down in January, though he has vowed to stay in office. In Geneva, meanwhile, the U.N. human rights chief criticized Israel for detaining and expelling a U.N. envoy investigating the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Israel says it stopped Richard Falk, the U.N. Human Rights Council monitor for the Palestinian territories, at the airport Sunday because it perceives him to be severely biased. U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay says Israel's treatment of Falk was unprecedented and deeply regrettable.
Syria's Assad seeks Israeli stance on Golan: sources By Khaled Yacoub Oweis –Tue Dec 16, 12:02 pm ET
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syria has drafted a document defining the boundaries of the occupied Golan Heights and was waiting for an Israeli reply through Turkish mediators, sources familiar with the talks said this week.President Bashar al-Assad recently told Western officials that Damascus wants Israel to take a clear position on the territorial problem between the two countries before agreeing to push stalled peace talks forward.The Syrian document sets the boundaries with reference to six geographical points, the sources told Reuters.The president was clear that Syria wants to know the Israeli view about what constitutes occupied Syrian territory before progress could be made, one of the sources said.According to Syrian thinking, Israeli agreement on the six (geographical) points could help seal a peace deal next year. But Israel may not be able to provide a response any time soon, when it is in such political turmoil, a second source said.Indirect talks between Syria and Israel, which were suspended about three months ago after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to resign over a corruption scandal, center on the fate of the Golan Heights.Israel captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it more than a decade later -- a move unanimously rejected by the United Nations Security Council.The two countries held almost 10 years of direct talks under U.S. supervision that collapsed in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.Bashar's late father, President Hafez al-Assad, refused to sign a deal that did not include the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, a main water reservoir.The late Assad regarded the northeastern shore as an integral part of the Golan and said that Syria was in control of it before the war broke out on June 4, 1967.Israel captured the whole eastern shore along with the surrounding plateau in the war. The shoreline has been receding for decades. Under the Israeli proposal, Syria would have been only meters short of the northeastern shore.
FATHER'S LEGACY
Bashar has stuck to his father's line on the Golan.A Syrian official said that the paper sent to Turkey includes reference to geographical points on the present northeastern shore of the lake. The document puts us on the water, the official said.
Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Shara said last month that the Syrian definition of the June 4 line means the restoration of the northeastern shore of the lake to Syria and described Israeli arguments about the shoreline receding as invalid.Diplomats in the Syrian capital said that even if the two sides make progress on the territorial question a deal might not follow easily because Israel now wants Syria to reduce its alliance with Iran and cut support for the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamist groups.The situation is more complicated than in 2000 with Syria's external ties coming into play. Syria also wants agreement on the six points without direct negotiations, which might be difficult, one of the diplomats said.
Syrian officials have said Israel has no right to set conditions regarding its foreign policy but acknowledged that the political map of the region would change if Damascus and Israel sign a deal. Assad told his visitors that Syria had received a document from Israel through Turkey with queries about Syrian relations with neighboring states after a possible peace, according to the sources. The president said Syria has responded, but he did not say how, one said. Olmert, who is still caretaker prime minister, has said he wants to renew the talks. Turkey also wants the talks to move to a direct mode from the four indirect rounds that have been held since April, the diplomats said. A foreign official who has met Assad said the Syrian leader was not enthusiastic about holding a fifth round before the Israeli parliamentary elections in February, although European leaders have urged him to agree to one before then. (Editing by Nadim Ladki and Samia Nakhoul)
Quartet says U.S.-led Mideast talks irreversible By Louis Charbonneau Louis Charbonneau – Mon Dec 15, 8:21 pm
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators said on Monday there was no turning back from U.S.-led talks between the Israelis and Palestinians even though they have failed so far to produce a peace agreement.In a statement issued after a meeting of Quartet members -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- the group said the negotiations launched last November in Annapolis, Maryland should be accelerated.The bilateral negotiations process launched at Annapolis is irreversible and ... these negotiations should be intensified in order to put an end to the conflict and to establish as soon as possible the state of Palestine, living side by side in peace and security with Israel, it said.The statement criticized both Israel and the Palestinians and urged both sides to do more for the talks.The group condemned indiscriminate attacks on Israel and urged Palestinians to continue work on reforming their security services and to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism.
It also urged Israel to freeze all settlement activities, which have a negative impact on the negotiating environment and on Palestinian economic recovery, and to address the growing threat of settler extremism.The Quartet also expressed concern about the Israeli blockade of Gaza, saying the provision of humanitarian supplies to Gaza must be assured continuously.U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke about a U.S.-drafted resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on Tuesday.
PROGRESS
Rice said that resolution would put the international community on record in believing in the irreversibility of the Annapolis process -- a process she has been overseeing.Rice also dismissed suggestions that the failure to get an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of the year, as the administration of President George W. Bush had aimed for, meant the process had been a failure.They have achieved a good deal of progress in their negotiations, Rice told reporters after the Quartet meeting. If that process takes a little bit longer, so be it.Libya, the only Arab member of the U.N. Security Council, criticized the U.S. draft resolution for avoiding any mention of specific complaints the Palestinians have raised.
Ignoring completely what Israel is doing there I think will not help ... support for this draft resolution, Libya's U.N. Ambassador Giadallah Ettalhi told reporters.
Asked if he planned to vote against the text, Ettalhi said he was still awaiting instructions from Tripoli.Among the issues he said he would like to see included in the resolution are the blockade of Gaza and settlements.With most members of 15-nation council backing the text, it will most likely pass even if the Libyans vote against it. But diplomats said they would prefer to have Arab backing and a unanimous vote in favor.If approved, it will be the Security Council's first resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since November 2003, when it endorsed the Middle East road map peace plan for eventual Palestinian statehood. Rice, her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband are among those expected to attend the council debate on the U.S. draft resolution.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell in Washington; editing by Todd Eastham)
Bethlehem gears up for a busy Christmas Mon Dec 15, 4:43 pm ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) – The traditional birthplace of Jesus is preparing to welcome a record number of tourists in its first year of relative calm in the West Bank since 2000, Bethlehem's mayor said on Monday.Victor Batarseh said at his annual news conference ahead of Christmas and the New Year celebration that there has been a clear improvement in the situation of tourism since the beginning of the year.He said the West Bank town where Christians believe Jesus was born was expecting to host more than a million tourists and pilgrims "from now until the end of the year.
Some 5,000 hotel rooms in the town on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem are fully booked for Christmas week, Batarseh said.Bethlehem was hard hit following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000 and the building of the Jewish state's controversial West Bank barrier that encircles much of Bethlehem.The revival of the local tourism industry has also led to a sharp drop in unemployment from 50 percent in 2005 to 22 percent in 2008, Batarseh said.The Palestinian mayor nevertheless decried the Israeli military presence and roadblocks around the town.
As mayor, it is my duty to turn your attention to the suffering endured by the residents of this town and the humiliation and injustice that the (Israeli) occupation puts them through, he said.The relative improvement of the occupied West Bank's economy was one of the few visible achievements of the US-backed Middle East peace talks which were launched in November 2007 but have failed so far to yield a peace treaty.
