U.S. wants Israel to freeze settlement for year: report Thu Aug 6, 4:41 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The United States has asked Israel to freeze West Bank settlement for a year to prod Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with the Jewish state, an Israeli newspaper said Thursday.Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in interviews with Israeli radio stations, said an attempt to reach understandings with Washington over a suspension of construction in settlements, but he did not directly comment on the report in the Haaretz daily.All this is in the context of a broad plan for a comprehensive regional agreement that is apparently shaping up as a possible initiative by President (Barack) Obama with the main focus on the Palestinians and a door kept open, after a certain delay, for Syria and Lebanon,Barak told Israel Radio.The newspaper said a proposal for a one-year settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank was raised by Obama's special envoy, George Mitchell, during talks in Jerusalem last week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would not comment directly on the report but confirmed the United States was continuing to seek an Israeli hiatus in settlement expansion.Without getting into any specifics, the president's been clear in outlining the steps he believes the Israelis, Palestinians and Arab states should take in order to achieve a lasting Middle East peace -- and that includes a freeze on settlements,Gibbs told reporters in Washington.
WIDE RIFT
The issue has opened the widest rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said peace negotiations with Israel, suspended since December, cannot resume until settlement activity ceases.Israel's Channel 10 television said an Israeli diplomat serving as a Boston-based consul had written an internal memo accusing Netanyahu's government of doing strategic damage to Israel's ties with its biggest ally by sniping over settlements.Consul Nadav Tamir wrote that Israelis and Americans who had ideological differences with Obama were ready to sacrifice the special relations between the two countries to further their own political agendas, the report said.Tamir was quoted further as writing in his brief to the Foreign Ministry that the high profile of the dispute had led to a feeling in the United States that Obama has to confront refusal on the part of the governments of Iran, North Korea and Israel.Barak has said Washington would present a Middle East plan within weeks and Israel should accept it.A U.S. State Department spokesman said last week that Mitchell would announce a peace plan in a matter of weeks.Arab moves toward commercial or diplomatic ties with Israel could help Netanyahu persuade partners in his right-leaning coalition to accept a compromise on settlements.But there has been little indication Arab countries in the region would make such gestures without a settlement freeze.Kuwait and Jordan said last week in Washington that Israel should fulfill its obligations before peace talks can resume. Saudi Arabia accused the Jewish state of not being serious about peace with the Palestinians.(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Squabbling Palestinian movement gets Saudi scolding By Mohammed Assadi and Ali Sawafta – Thu Aug 6, 4:17 pm ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) – Reformists kept up pressure for leadership change in the dominant Palestinian party Fatah on Thursday, and Saudi Arabia said no Palestinian state could emerge unless such internal divisions were healed.Fatah's first congress in 20 years got off to a rocky start this week, with charges by reformists that a well-entrenched but aging and politically discredited old guard had stacked the convention with loyalists to safeguard the status quo.Internal feuding and the risk of an open split in the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in addition to the deep rift between Fatah and Islamist rival Hamas, provoked a warning from Saudi King Abdullah in unusually blunt language.Even if the whole world agreed to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with all the needed support and backing, it will not be established as long as the Palestinian house is divided,Abdullah wrote in an open letter to Abbas.I'll be honest, brothers. The criminal enemy (Israel) could not over long years of continued aggression have inflicted as much damage to the Palestinian cause as did the Palestinians themselves in a matter of a few months,he said. The letter was published in the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat.If a Middle East peace agreement can be negotiated to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel, it would be signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is recognized by Israel and the UN, dominated by Fatah, and headed by Abbas.Unity within Fatah is crucial to a successful peace process.Western backers of Abbas hope this congress can restore credibility to Fatah ahead of an election expected in early 2010, the year that may see a new United States-led push for a comprehensive peace deal with Israel.
ROOM AT THE TOP?
Discredited by years of slow-moving peace talks and the taint of corruption under the late Yasser Arafat, humbled at the polls by Hamas in 2006, Fatah is in need of an overhaul and a re-launch, say younger-generation reformists.On Thursday, there were signs of some room at the top for new blood, as aging members of Fatah's Central Committee announced they would not be seeking re-election.Only eight of 16 incumbents of the ruling Central Committee were re-standing. But critics said the old guard could still cling to power with the vote of a congress packed at the last minute with 700 of their supporters. The youngest is over 70.I know my chances are slim but I want to run for the Central Committee,said Husam Khader, 47. He accused some committee members of vote-buying by bringing in their relatives and employees as members of the congress.Some delegates reported a heated discussion, with participants shouting at each other and cursing.An official from the Ministry of Finance alleged that some had used state money for their own families and spoke of nepotism in the top levels of the movement by officials who had appointed sons, daughters and friends as delegates.This is part of democracy, as long as we do not get into a fist fight,said one participant.The Central Committee was last chosen in Tunis in 1989. It normally numbers 21, 18 of whom are elected and three appointed. Five, including Arafat, have died in the intervening years.Nomination of a new lineup was to begin on Thursday evening and end on Friday. A vote was due by Saturday. There was no challenge to Abbas's leadership. The most popular figure next to the 74-year-old president is Marwan Barghouti, who is in an Israeli prison. I expect the young generation will occupy between 20 to 30 percent of the Central Committee seats,said reformist Jamal Shoubaki.This is a small percentage but it is a good start.
Reinforcing Fatah's democratic credentials is crucial to restoring Palestinian support for the Western-backed movement and displacing Islamist Hamas, which refuses to renounce armed struggle and accept Israel's right to exist.Fatah was humbled by Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian election, in a shock vote that upset Western hopes for the peace process. Hamas fighters in 2007 routed Fatah in the Gaza Strip, and Fatah now governs in the West Bank only.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was watching the Bethlehem congress carefully but not interfering. My suggestion is not to be too impressed by what will be said at the Fatah convention as part of the internal dialogue,he told Knesset members on Tuesday.The real test will come after the convention when a leadership is formed there and a proper amount of legitimacy, and then we will see what this leadership is willing to bring to the negotiating table.(Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul, Erika Solomon and Joseph Nasr; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Jon Boyle)
Top US lawmaker to visit Israel Thu Aug 6, 1:38 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The top Republican on the US House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee said Thursday she will visit Israel next week in a show of support for the US ally against violent extremists.Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida will meet with top Israeli government officials including President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, her office said in a statement.The United States and Israel must continue to work together to forge even closer ties as we face the mutual threats posed by violent extremists and the regimes which support them, she said in the statement, which listed no meetings with any Palestinian officials.Ros-Lehtinen will visit the Western Wall and visit the southern Israeli city of Sderot, which has borne the brunt of rocket fire from Palestinian Islamist fighters in nearby Gaza.Sderot reminds us that the threat posed by violent Islamists and their state sponsors is all too real, and that we must defend freedom against those who would destroy it,Ros-Lehtinen said.Upon returning to Jerusalem, the lawmaker was to meet with survivors of suicide bombings and other attacks in Israel, according to the statement.And she was also to meet with a legal adviser to the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, whose stated mission is to pursue what it calls the perpetrators and financial supporters of Islamic terror through the courts.Ros-Lehtinen was also to attend a special showing of the film The Third Jihad,which has drawn angry criticisms from US Muslim groups, and attend a presentation illustrating violent anti-Israel propaganda in Palestinian media.
Govt concerned at Hezbollah rearmament: minister Thu Aug 6, 12:38 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Visiting Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis on Thursday said his country was very, very concerned that Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah was stockpiling arms in violation of a UN resolution.We made it very clear to the Israeli government that the air incursions are a breach of Resolution 1701, Lewis told reporters in Beirut, where he met with President Michel Sleiman and caretaker Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh.And equally we are very, very concerned at the rearming of Hezbollah, which we believe to a significant extent that has taken place, which is in contravention of Resolution 1701.Lewis said he had sought assurances that the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) would prevent the further rearming and the use of military or terrorist means by Hezbollah.But Salloukh denied the militant party was rearming.Lebanon has not yet received any proof that arms are being smuggled to Hezbollah,he said.The last UN report on the implementation of 1701 says nothing on the smuggling of arms.Hezbollah's arms are an internal Lebanese affair,Salloukh added.The United Nation's tenth report on the implementation of Resolution 1701, which ended a devastating 34-day war between the militant Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006, said UNIFIL had not found any evidence of arms smuggling in its area of operations in southern Lebanon.The report was published on June 29 this year.UNIFIL, set up in 1978 to monitor Lebanon's border with Israel, was expanded after the 2006 war.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday said Hezbollah had stockpiled 40,000 rockets and warned the Jewish state would get tough in case of a conflict with Lebanon.We cannot accept that a neighbouring UN member state should have in its government representatives of a militia that has more than 40,000 rockets, Barak told Israeli public radio.Last month, an arms cache exploded in a village in southern Lebanon, an area considered to be a Hezbollah stronghold.The United Nations said the explosion marked a serious violation of Resolution 1701 and UN reports on the implementation of 1701 regularly express concern over the continued presence of Hezbollah arms in south Lebanon and Israeli air incursions.The Lebanese army said the cache dated back to the 2006 war but Hezbollah did not comment on the explosion.This weapons depot dates back to the July war,an army spokesman told AFP on condition of anonymity after the explosion.There was no one but Hezbollah in this area.
Palestinian Fatah renews top body in 20-year first Thu Aug 6, 11:12 am ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) – The Fatah party founded by iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was to start renewing its governing bodies for the first time in 20 years with candidates due to register on Thursday night.The candidacies for the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council will be registered tonight,spokesman Nabil Amr told journalist at the Fatah congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Voting should start on Friday afternoon, he added.
While Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who took over the party's leadership after Arafat's 2004 death is unopposed, a number of party dinosaurs are expected to make way for the younger generation.Among those seen as leading candidates are Marwan Barghuthi, the party's West Bank secretary general who is held in an Israeli prison, former preventive security chief Jibril Rajub and Mohammed Dahlan, once Fatah's strongman in the Gaza Strip.Longstanding Hamas-Fatah tensions boiled over in June 2007when the Islamists seized control of Gaza after a week of deadly street clashes, confining Abbas's power base to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Infighting and corruption allegations have contributed to weakening the dominant position in Palestinian political life that Fatah enjoyed before Arafat's death.Opening the congress, the first in 20 years, Abbas on Tuesday admitted a litany of past errors by the party, and called for a new start.But the next day was marked by acrimonious rows as delegates demanded accountability from the party leadership.Hundreds of delegates protested the lack of administrative and financial accounting since the last congress in 1989 and rejected explanations that this was contained in Abbas's opening speech.
Iran is the problem, not Israeli settlements: US lawmaker Thu Aug 6, 10:56 am ET
JERUSALEM, Aug 6, 2009 (AFP) – Senior US Republican Congressman Eric Cantor said on Thursday that the world should stop pressuring Israel over settlements and concentrate instead on the threat from a nuclear Iran.Cantor, Republican Whip in the House of Representatives, said the main obstacle to Middle East peace is the Palestinian refusal to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and not the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.I don't quite know what is driving the focus on the issue of settlements, he told Israeli public radio.We believe the focus should be on the existential threat to Israel from a nuclear-armed Iran,said Cantor, who is leading a 25-strong delegation of Republican lawmakers on a weeklong visit.Since hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won elections in February, Israel has come under increasing pressure from US President Barack Obama to freeze settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, considered illegal by the international community.But Netanyahu has tried to shift world attention to Iran, which both Israel and the United States suspect of using a civilian nuclear programme to mask a drive for a bomb.Cantor insisted Washington should push for tough sanctions on the terrorist regime in Iran.We share the view with Prime Minister Netanyahu that we do not want to see undue pressure placed on Israel.Cantor, the Republican party's only Jewish representative in Congress, said it is up to the Palestinians to make the running in reviving stalled peace talks with Israel.If we are interested in a two-state solution we have to accept, and the Palestinians have to accept, that Israel is a Jewish state,he said.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has so far refused to recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people, which Netanyahu has said is a key condition for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state.The visiting delegation is the largest group of Republicans to visit Israel.A similar delegation of 30 Congressmen from President Barack Obama's Democratic party is to travel to Israel next week.
Hamas rockets a war crime: Human Rights Watch Thu Aug 6, 9:04 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Rocket attacks carried out against Israel by the Hamas rulers of Gaza and other Palestinian militants amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Thursday.Hamas forces violated the laws of war both by firing rockets deliberately and indiscriminately at Israeli cities and by launching them from populated areas and endangering Gazan civilians,HRW programme director Iain Levine said.Hamas rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians are unlawful and unjustifiable and amount to war crimes,he said.The 31-page report examines attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups since November 2008 that killed three Israeli civilians and severely wounded dozens of others.The homemade Qassam and Soviet-designed Grad rockets used by Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip cannot be aimed with any reliability, the report says.Under the laws of war, such weapons are indiscriminate when used against targets in densely populated areas,the New York-based watchdog said.As the governing authority in Gaza, Hamas should publicly renounce rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centres and punish those responsible, including members of its own armed wing, Levine said.Israel cited persistent rocket fire from Gaza as its reason for launching a devastating December 28-January 18 offensive that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.HRW noted that in the past it had documented numerous violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces in Gaza, but stressed that violations by one party to a conflict never justify violations by the other.It said Hamas has significantly limited rocket attacks in recent months, but has not renounced attacks that deliberately or indiscriminately target civilians -- serious violations of the laws of war -- or brought to justice those responsible for initiating such attacks.
Hamas sharply criticised the report, claiming it exempts the occupation from the crimes it committed and puts the executioner and the victim on the same footing.It is a politicised report lacking objectivity and impartiality,the Hamas information ministry said in a statement.Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people as long as they are under occupation and face state terrorism, the statement said.The Israeli military is conducting 15 criminal probes into troop conduct during the offensive, including allegations children were used as human shields.The Israeli foreign ministry has said that so far the evidence shows the troops pursued legitimate objectives with appropriate precautions, while Hamas committed grave violations of international law.
Israel would get tough in any conflict with Lebanon Thu Aug 6, 8:02 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's defence minister claimed on Thursday that the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group has stockpiled 40,000 rockets and warned the Jewish state would get tough in case of a conflict with Lebanon.We cannot accept that a neighbouring UN member state should have in its government representatives of a militia that has more than 40,000 rockets, Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli public radio.If there is a conflict on our northern border, we will use all necessary force,he said.What happened in the second Lebanon war will not happen again ... at the time a message from the United States indicated we must spare Lebanon's infrastructure,the minister said.Israel, which considers Hezbollah a terror group, fought a 34-day war with the Shiite militia in July-August 2006, in which more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in Lebanon and 160 in Israel, most of them soldiers.Hezbollah continues arming itself and we must ensure certain types of weapon should not enter Lebanon,Barak said.
Britain urges Syria to help push Mideast peace Tue Aug 4, 12:47 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis on Tuesday urged Syria to help push deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and also resume its own negotiations with the Jewish state.Lewis also told reporters that Israel should return the strategic Golan Heights to Syria as part of a comprehensive peace between the two arch-foes, following talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.We want Syria to use its influence in terms of helping to create the conditions now for the two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians so crucial to the stability of the region,Lewis said.We expressed the hope that as soon as it is possible the negotiations resume between Israel and Syria on the question of the Golan Heights and also the question of normalising relations between the two countries, he added.Lewis, who arrived on Monday for talks with Syrian leaders, said a keynote speech in June by US President Barack Obama in Egypt to engage the region had struck optimism for Middle East peace.We think that there is now a very important opportunity that perhaps hasn't existed in the past for one of the world's great conflicts to begin to come to an end, the conflict of the Middle East,he said.A solution, he said, should include a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel and a comprehensive peace between Syria and Israel which includes the return of the Golan Heights.Turkey last year brokered four rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Syria, but these were suspended when Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip in late December.
Syria has conditioned the resumption of talks to Israel's return of the Golan, which was seized by the Jewish state during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed.But Israel refuses to give up control of the strategic plateau.Whatever the case, the Golan must remain under Israeli control in any agreement with Syria,Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a delegation of US congressman on Monday.Lewis also urged Syria to use its influence to help stabilise neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon.
Turkey slams Israel for Jerusalem evictions Tue Aug 4, 11:28 am ET
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey on Tuesday slammed Israel for evicting Palestinian families from east Jerusalem, warning of serious repercussions for peace efforts in the Middle East.A foreign ministry statement urged Israel to refrain from steps that would harm confidence between the parties and change the status of east Jerusalem, stressing that this is vital for peace efforts.We call for an immediate end to this action, it said.Club-wielding Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem Sunday, after which clashes erupted in the upmarket Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah.The action followed a decision by Israel's Supreme Court to order the eviction of the 53 Palestinians.Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state that includes the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Six Day War and subsequently annexed it in a move the international community has not recognized.Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since the two signed a military cooperation accord in 1996, but Ankara's criticism of the Jewish state has remarkably mounted in recent years.In January, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out from a debate on the Gaza war in Davos with Israeli President Shimon Peres after accusing Israel of barbarian acts against the Palestinians.
Israel's Barak says U.S. to present peace plan soon Tue Aug 4, 9:32 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday the United States would present a Middle East peace plan within weeks and Israel should accept it.In the coming weeks, their plan will be formulated and presented to the parties, Barak said, according to a spokesman for Israel's parliament who briefed reporters on the defense chief's remarks to its Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.I believe that Israel must take the lead in accepting the plan,Barak was quoted as saying.
Barak has held a series of meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, on Washington's demand for a Jewish settlement freeze that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been resisting.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded a halt to settlement activity, as stipulated by a U.S.-backed 2003 peace road map, before negotiations suspended since Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip last December can resume.Israeli media have speculated the Obama administration would put forward new peace proposals to try to break the stalemate reached in talks Israel and the Palestinians launched at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007.Asked at a daily briefing in Washington on Monday when a peace plan might be announced by Mitchell, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said: I think it will be in a matter of weeks.He gave no specifics.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Jordan rejects US call to improve ties with Israel By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 3, 10:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Jordan on Monday mirrored Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting U.S. appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks, throwing a damper on the Obama administration's push for Arab support behind new negotiations.After talks here with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said confidence-building measures that the U.S. wants Arab states to take will not produce a resolution to the conflict.Judeh and Clinton both criticized Israel for its weekend eviction of Palestinian families from an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem. But as Clinton looked on at a joint news conference at the State Department, Judeh rebuffed calls for Arabs to take incremental steps in normalizing relations with Israel before Israel agrees to withdraw from occupied Arab territory.In the Middle East, there has been in the past an overinvestment, perhaps, by the parties in pursuing confidence-building measures, conflict-management techniques, including transitional arrangements, and an overemphasis on gestures, perhaps at the expense of reaching the actual end game,he said.Judeh said that piecemeal approaches that never lead to peace and that have proven repeatedly to be confidence-eroding, rather than confidence-building must be avoided.And, he criticized Israel for its refusal to halt construction of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and said the Israelis should respond to a 2002 Arab peace offer.Now, in 2009, many would say it is time for Israel to reciprocate,he said.Judeh's comments marked the second time in three days that an Arab foreign minister bluntly refused U.S. calls to improve ties with Israel with measures such as opening trade offices, allowing academic exchanges and permitting civilian Israeli aircraft to overfly their airspace as a way of demonstrating their commitment to peace.
On Friday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal expressed similar sentiments, also at a news conference with Clinton. Unlike Jordan, though, which has signed a peace deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia does not recognize the Israel.Despite the statements, Clinton maintained that U.S. special Mideast Peace envoy George Mitchell was making progress and praised Jordan for its playing a strong and vital role in the region and expressed hope that negotiations could soon resume.We are working with the Israelis, the Palestinian Authority and Arab states to take the steps needed to make that possible, she said.The foreign minister and I discussed this effort, and I expressed our deep appreciation for Jordan's leadership in working with other Arab states to support peace with deeds, as well as words.At the same time, she criticized Israel for the eviction of the Palestinian families in east Jerusalem to enforce a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.I think these actions are deeply regrettable,Clinton said.The eviction of families and demolition of homes in East Jerusalem is not in keeping with Israeli obligations and I urge the government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions.State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said later that the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, had spoken to Israel's ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on Sunday to express our concern about this step.
Arab leaders, on U.S. visits, put onus on Israel By Matt Spetalnick – Mon Aug 3, 6:11 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two visiting Arab leaders sought to ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Israel in Washington on Monday after Saudi Arabia accused the Jewish state of not being serious about peace with the Palestinians.Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who met President Barack Obama, and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Joudeh, who saw Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both put the onus on Israel for reviving stalled peace moves.Israel has made clear its position that the Palestinians and Arab states that support them must first do more to help advance the peace process.I affirmed to President Obama that we are interested in bringing about peace in the Middle East, the emir told reporters as he sat down with Obama at the White House.It is in our interest that peace be brought about. And the indicator is that the recent Arab peace initiative that was agreed upon by all of the Arab parties and states, and we would implement this peace initiative when Israel implements and fulfills its obligations, he added.Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, during a U.S. visit on Friday, rejected U.S. pleas to improve ties with Israel as a way of jump-starting regional peace talks, saying Israel must decide if it wants real peace, which is at hand, or if it wants to continue obfuscating.Arab leaders have sharpened criticism of Israel's right-leaning government over its resistance to U.S. pressure to halt all Jewish settlement construction, an issue that has created a rare rift between Washington and its close ally.Middle East peace -- along with "combating extremism and other regional threats and promoting reform across the Arab world" -- will also be high on the agenda when Obama meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Washington on August 18, the White House said.
ARAB PEACE INITIATIVE STALLED
The Obama administration is pressing Arab governments for positive gestures toward Israel if it freezes settlements, a move the United States hopes will lead to regional peace negotiations. But Arab states are cool to the idea.Arab leaders say they remain committed to an initiative, put forth by Saudi Arabia and endorsed by a 2002 Arab League summit, offering Israel recognition in return for withdrawal from Arab land occupied in 1967, creation of a Palestinian state and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.Successive Israeli governments have rejected or ignored the offer, saying the return of refugees to areas now inside Israel would destroy the Jewish character of the state.Asked about Saud's accusation against Israel, Joudeh backed the Saudi minister's explanation of the Arab position. The Arab peace initiative is very clear. It is an end of occupation, establishment of an independent Palestinian state, after which there will be normal relations, Joudeh said.Obama, with Kuwait's emir at his side, made no mention of the matter, saying they would discuss the importance of moving the Arab-Israeli peace process forward. Since taking office in January, Obama has vowed a more active role in peace efforts than his predecessor George W. Bush.In a joint appearance with Joudeh, Clinton said: Everyone needs to refrain from provocative actions that might interfere with the path forward. And that's on all sides.(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Jeff Mason; editing by Patricia Wilson and Chris Wilson)
Clinton leads condemnation of Jerusalem evictions Mon Aug 3, 3:57 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and the European Union hit out Monday at Israel for evicting Palestinian families from east Jerusalem, warning that such moves endangered the Middle East peace process.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the international condemnation, labelling the evictions deeply regrettable and provocative and accusing Israel of failing to live up to its international obligations under existing peace initiatives.I have said before that the eviction of families and demolition of homes in east Jerusalem is not in keeping with Israeli obligations,Clinton told reporters at a Washington press conference alongside Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.And I urge the government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions.Club-wielding Israeli riot police evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem on Sunday, after which clashes erupted in the upmarket Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah.
The action followed a decision by Israel's Supreme Court to order the eviction of the 53 Palestinians, including 19 minors.The Swedish presidency of the European Union expressed its serious concern about the continued and unacceptable evictions in east Jerusalem,which it said were illegal under international law.The strongly-worded EU statement issued in Brussels said the evictions contravene repeated calls by the international community... to refrain from any provocative actions in east Jerusalem.
They confirm a worrying trend that runs counter to the creation of an atmosphere conducive to achieving a viable and credible solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians,it said.Clinton stressed the same point, saying both parties have responsibilities to refrain from provocative actions that can block the path toward a comprehensive peace agreement.Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot be used to prejudge the outcome of negotiations. And they will not be recognized as changing the status quo.There was further condemnation from individual European countries.French foreign office spokesman Romain Nadal branded the evictions illegal with regard to international law and said they were highly detrimental to the peace process.And Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said they jeopardized the stalled Middle East peace process.The international community has repeatedly urged Israel to refrain from such provocative acts towards Palestinians as this is undermining the prospects for resolving the issue of Jerusalem within the frame of a two-state solution,he said in a statement.Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Six Day War and subsequently annexed it in a move the international community has not recognized.Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state that includes the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.The Supreme Court ordered the evictions following an appeal by the Nahalat Shimon International settler group, which claimed Jewish settlers have title deeds for the properties, despite UN and Palestinian denials.Sheikh Jarrah is one of the most sensitive neighborhoods closest to the so-called Green Line separating east and west Jerusalem, with the fate of the city one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
