Not so fast: Abu Mazen may not come to the table
Guess who wants some guarantees before he comes to the negotiating table: Yes, you guessed it. The world's best-loved Holcaust denier. President Mahmoud Abbas said the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations depends on the reference to the negotiations process, that is a definition to this process which means basing them on recognizing the need to withdraw to the 1967 borders and ending the occupation,.Was he at the same meeting as Obama? I mean, why bother to negotiate at all? What could go wrong?
In a statement followed the Tripartite meeting between him, U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, President Abbas said: we have already identified with the former Israeli government the borders of the occupied territory, in which it is the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley.
Abbas also reiterated the Palestinian insistence that Israel halt settlement building in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem.
He said: 'In today's meetings we confirmed our positions and commitment to the Road Map and its implementation. We also demanded that the Israeli side fulfill its commitments on settlements, including on natural growth.”
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:25 AM
1 Comments:
The Palestinians stick to that position, negotiations are never going off the ground. I suspect that's why Obama and Netanyahu were both in agreement and Abbas was not very happy with it. It wasn't what the Palestinians expected to hear. They couldn't say "no" to the President Of The United States and had to be present at a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister but that doesn't mean they'll say "yes" to negotiations with Israel. The photo op summit was a good show but it fell far short on the specifics of what will happen next - if it happens.
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