Ayalon: No deadline for 'settlement freeze'
On Saturday, Lebanon's an-Nahar quoted French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner saying that the United States had given Israel six months to freeze 'settlement' construction in Judea and Samaria. Otherwise, according to the report, the United States would withdraw its support for 'peace talks. The Lebanese paper quoted Kouchner as expressing the fear that Israel's "stubbornness, intentional foot-dragging and acquiescence to the Israel lobby" would convince the Americans to pull out of peace discussions altogether.Late Saturday night, Israel's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon denied the report.
The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm that Kouchner had made the statements by press time.
The French foreign minister was in Beirut on Friday for talks with senior Lebanese officials, including Hizbullah legislator Nawaf Musawi. The meeting with Musawi dealt with efforts to form a new coalition government led by Prime Minister-designate Sa'ad Hariri.
"We have no knowledge of this whatsoever," Ayalon said through a spokesman.Hezbullah is apparently being invited to join the new Lebanese government, although without the veto power it enjoyed in the previous government. Israel is not too pleased about the prospect.
Mark Regev, adviser to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, responded to the Kouchner-Musawi meeting by warning that "if Hizbullah joins the Lebanese government, then Lebanon as a country will be responsible for any Hizbullah aggression against Israel. That has to be clear."Kouchner's meeting with the terror organization's representative - now accepted as almost routine - is the latest in a series of meetings that chic Europeans have held with the terror organization. That's in keeping with the European motto "if they're an enemy of the Jews, they're a friend of mine."
As to the supposed American threat, I doubt it was made, but if it was, who cares?
UPDATE 4:00 PM
Paul Mirengoff comments regarding the 'threat' to cut off negotiations: If only it were true. Heh.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:28 AM
1 Comments:
Its not like there would be negotiations even if Israel agreed to a settlement freeze. Abbas has made it clear regardless of what Israel does or doesn't do, the Palestinians are happy with the way things are.
Why don't the French and the Americans get the message?
What could wrong indeed
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