by Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hirsch, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies
Israeli, Palestinian negotiators meet over dinner on Monday in Washington, set to hold first work session on Tuesday • Martin Indyk officially appointed new peace envoy • PA President Mahmoud Abbas: Not a single Israeli can remain on Palestinian lands.
U.S. Secretary of State
hosts Israeli and Palestinian negotiators for dinner on Monday in
Washington
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Photo credit: AP  |
After three years of stalemate, the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process resumed in Washington on Monday and it
remains to be seen whether this round of negotiations will yield a
different result than past efforts.
On Monday evening, U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry hosted Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the State
Department building in Washington for an iftar dinner -- the evening
meal with which Muslims break their daily fast during Ramadan.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's special envoy Yitzhak Molcho attended on
behalf of Israel while chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' aide Mohammed Shtayyeh
represented the Palestinians.
After the negotiating teams arrived in
Washington, Kerry met separately with each, starting with the Israelis,
before all came together around the dinner table. Kerry and his
delegation of four, including new U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East
Peace Martin Indyk, were seated on one side of the table and their
guests on the other side, with the two main negotiators Livni and Erekat
seated side by side.
"It's very, very special to be here," Kerry told his guests. "There isn't very much to talk about at all," he joked.
The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams
were to hold their first work meeting on Tuesday, to be followed by a
press conference.
Before arriving in Washington, Livni and
Molcho visited New York, where they met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon. As part of the understandings reached ahead of the talks, the
Palestinians agreed to refrain from asking the U.N. for recognition of
statehood or any other unilateral steps in pursuit of statehood
recognition during the course of the negotiations.
Moon expressed "strong support" for the
renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and also said he appreciated
the "courageous decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this
regard."
Livni said that negotiations would be "very
tough" and there would be obstacles along the way. She added, however,
that negotiations were the only way to achieve a two-state solution and
protect Israel's security and diplomatic interests.
In an interview with Reuters Television in
Washington, Livni voiced some hope about the talks. "It is not a favor
to the United States or to the Palestinians; this is something that we
need to do," she said.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed
the renewal of talks, saying he was hopeful "that both the Israelis and
Palestinians will approach these talks in good faith and with sustained
focus and determination."
"This is a promising step forward, though hard work and hard choices remain ahead," Obama said.
Obama also praised the appointment of Indyk to lead the U.S. negotiating team.
The appointment of Indyk was announced by Kerry on Monday just ahead of the renewal of talks.
"[Indyk] is realistic," Kerry said. "He
understands that Israeli-Palestinian peace will not come easily and it
will not happen overnight. But he also understands that there is now a
path forward and we must follow that path with urgency."
Regarding the upcoming negotiations, Kerry
said, "Going forward, it's no secret that this is a difficult process.
If it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago. It's no secret,
therefore, that many difficult choices lie ahead for the negotiators
and for the leaders as we seek reasonable compromises on tough,
complicated, emotional, and symbolic issues. I think reasonable
compromises have to be a keystone of all of this effort. I know the
negotiations are going to be tough, but I also know that the
consequences of not trying could be worse."
Indyk, 62, replaces David Hale as the head of
U.S. efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Hale took over
the role from George Mitchell in 2011.
"It is a daunting and humbling challenge, but one that I cannot desist from," Indyk said on Monday about his new role.
While Indyk expressed cautious optimism on
Monday that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is achievable, he painted a
less rosy picture a year and a half ago. In an interview with Army
Radio then, he said, "I'm not particularly optimistic because I think
that the heart of the matter is that the maximum concessions that this
government of Israel would be prepared to make fall far short of the
minimum requirements that Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] will insist on. So
it may be possible to keep the talks going, which is a good thing but I
find it very hard to believe that they will reach an agreement."
Abbas was in Cairo on Monday, where he laid out his vision for a final-status agreement with Israel.
Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or
soldiers could remain in a future Palestinian state. He also said that
Palestinians deem illegal all Israeli settlement building in the West
Bank.
The forceful statements appeared to challenge
Kerry's hopes that the terms of the talks, scheduled to begin Monday
night over dinner, be kept secret.
"In a final resolution, we would not see the
presence of a single Israeli -- civilian or soldier -- on our lands,"
Abbas said in a briefing to mostly Egyptian journalists.
"An international, multinational presence like
in Sinai, Lebanon and Syria -- we are with that," he said, referring to
United Nations peacekeeping operations in those places.
Israel has said in the past that it would seek
to maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley after the
establishment of a Palestinian state to prevent any influx of weapons
that could be used against Israel.
But Abbas said he stood by understandings he
said he reached with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Netanyahu's
predecessor, that NATO forces could deploy in the Jordan Valley "as a
security guarantee to us and them."
Regarding Israeli settlements in the West Bank
and the status of Jerusalem -- among the most contentious issues facing
the two sides -- Abbas signalled no softening of his stance.
"We've already made all the necessary concessions," he said.
"East Jerusalem is the capital of the state of
Palestine ... if there were and must be some kind of small exchange (of
land) equal in size and value, we are ready to discuss this -- no more,
no less," he said.
Abbas was in Cairo to meet with Egypt's
interim president, Adly Mansour, nearly a month after the Egyptian
military ousted Mohammed Morsi. Abbas also discussed with senior
Egyptian intelligence figures relations between Egypt and the
Palestinian Authority, as well as the easing of movement of goods and
people between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip
exploded in the Sha'ar Hanegev region of southern Israel on Tuesday
morning. No injuries or damage were reported.
Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hirsch, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=11021
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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