Israel Matzav

State Dept.'s Crowley: Final status issues to be discussed only at direct talks

US Assistant Secretary of State Phillip Crowley said on Wednesday that final status issues between Israel and the 'Palestinians' may only be discussed in direct talks. This contradicts the position of 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen that Israel must agree to the 'Palestinian' position on borders and Jerusalem before direct talks can take place.

This is a fairly long briefing - the part about Israel and the 'Palestinians' runs from 33:25 to 36:32 if you'd like to skip the rest.

Let's go to the videotape.



Haaretz adds some tidbits from a speech by 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen to the Fatah revolutionary council on Tuesday:

Abbas' Tuesday speech to the Revolutionary Council was closed to journalists and only published by Fatah's al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper Wednesday.

Proposals about a settlement freeze and the borders of the Palestinian state should be very clear, he said.

"If this happens, it will be possible to go to direct negotiations," Abbas said, but added: "We cannot go to direct negotiations as blind and we will resist that peacefully."

The Palestinian president said he had already laid out his position to Egyptian and Jordanian leaders and would make it position clear to the Arab League when it meets July 29.

"If there was development until then, the situation will change," he said.
Otherwise, he added, he would wait until September, when the current, partial 10-month moratorium on Israeli construction in the West Bank expires - as will the mandate handed to him by the Arab League for holding indirect talks with Israel.

He said the U.S. had asked Israel to carry out confidence-building measures to coincide with the start of the indirect talks, begun in the spring, including a halt to Israeli arrest raids of suspected militants in Palestinian-controlled cities, transferring larger areas of the West Bank to full Palestinian autonomy and releasing prisoners.

"When we agreed to the proximity (indirect) talks, none of this happened," he said, adding, "we agreed to go to the proximity talks to discuss borders and security and we gave the U.S. envoy George Mitchell our thoughts on that. But we have not yet received Israeli responses."

There must be progress in the indirect talks in order to move on to direct negotiations, he said.

Israel Radio is reporting that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen claims to have an oral commitment from the United States that there will be no building by Israel in the 'areas set aside for a Palestinian state' in the event that the parties go to direct talks. If that is true, it would contradict this post, and Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Hmmm. Who's lying?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:10 PM