by Shlomo Cesana, Daniel Siryoti and News Agencies
Israeli prime minister, Palestinian Authority President Abbas said to be pessimistic ahead of next meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry • Jerusalem sources deny reports suggesting U.S. will impose peace deal • PA warns talks on brink of imploding.
Pessimistic. Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
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Photo credit: AP  |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas expressed pessimism
Monday, ahead of their Wednesday meetings with U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry, saying the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians
seem to be treading water.
"I see no real changes in the Palestinian
position since 1993," Netanyahu said in Monday's Likud-Beytenu faction
meeting, referring to the year in which the Oslo Accords were signed.
Addressing a question by MK Tzipi Hotovely,
the prime minister negated the possibility of promoting interim
agreements, stressing that the current negotiations were focused on
reaching a permanent peace deal with the Palestinian Authority.
Commenting on a statement by Meretz Chairwoman
MK Zehava Gal-On, who hedged that the U.S. will present a draft
agreement in January, which will include all the core issues and be
based on the 1967 borders and land swaps, Netanyahu said that Israel
would be willing to explore any suggestion that would maintain its
security interests.
"If the Palestinians can't even meet the
agreements reached so far -- we release prisoners but continue building
[settlements] -- how can I be sure they will live up to the bigger
issues, which their society is sure to find much more controversial? If
you want to lead -- get up and make the hard decisions. That's what I
did and I expect the Palestinians to do the same," Netanyahu was quoted
by i24news as saying.
Commenting on another remark by Gal-On, who
said that based on her meetings with Palestinian and American officials
she had reason to believe that "the Americans are making the transition
from mediating the talks to intervening in them," political sources said
that no specific American initiative was presented to Israel, let alone
imposed on it.
Washington would much rather see both parties reach an agreement on their own, the sources said.
Abbas, who met with Fatah officials in
Ramallah on Monday, said he does not hold much hope for the current
round of peace talks: "There hasn't been any advancement in the talks
with the Israelis until now, despite all the meetings between the
sides," he was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA as
saying. "After all these rounds of negotiations, there is nothing on the
ground. The negotiations are still without results."
Abbas slammed Israel's insistence on linking
the Palestinian prisoners' release to its planned settlement expansion,
warning that "the link of the two issues is likely to bring about the
termination of the talks, without results."
He also threatened to renege on the PA's
agreement not to unilaterally appeal for membership in international
organizations during the negotiations, unless all the released prisoners
are allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip or
Israel.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad
al-Maliki said Monday that the Arab League plans to seek a U.N. Security
Council censure of Israel over its planned settlement expansion.
A senior Ramallah source told Israel Hayom
that the measure was meant to circumvent the understandings reached
prior to the resumption of the peace talks, according to which Israel
will be able to pursue construction in Judea and Samaria in exchange for
the prisoners' release.
Also on Monday, Palestinian media quoted PLO
Executive Committee Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo as saying that
Israel was not sincerely engaged in the peace talks. "There is one party
negotiating, and that is us, while the other party is not proposing
anything that goes in line with international legitimacy and law," he
told Voice of Palestine radio.
Another Palestinian official said that "we are
pressing further with the talks for now, in hopes that the next two
stages [of the prisoners' release] will be carried out." He added that
it is highly unlikely that the negotiations would implode, saying, "The
only ones to lose from stopping the talks would be the Palestinians and
Abu Mazen [Abbas] and his associates are well aware of that."
Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams have
held 15 meetings since the peace talks resumed in August, but according
to a Tuesday report by Israel Radio, the issue of Jerusalem has caused
the negotiations to hit a snag, as chief Israeli negotiator Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni and Netanyahu's envoy Isaac Molho disagree on the
question of the size of the area that will be defined for the free
movement of Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Molho seeks to reduce the area as much as
possible and apply it only to east Jerusalem, while Livni seeks to be
more flexible in the matter.
Israel's opening position in the borders'
negotiation focuses on the need for a barrier rather than on the 1967
lines, as demanded by the Palestinians. According to Israel Radio,
Israel seeks to retain control not only over the major settlement blocs,
but also over several additional areas, such as the Jordan Valley and
the settlements of Psagot, Nokdim and Beit El.
Israel also seeks to retain control of the
water sources in the area, and the Palestinians were told they could
purchase water from Israel.
A source in the Prime Minister's Office who is
privy to the negotiations denied the reports concerning the borders,
saying that Israel has made it adamantly clear to the Palestinians that
Jerusalem will remain united and under Israeli sovereignty.
Livni's office refused to address the issue, saying only
that the reports were "unfounded and promoted by individuals who seek
to impede the peace process." According to a source in the justice
minister's office, Livni and Molho are working together and their
efforts are coordinated.
Shlomo Cesana, Daniel Siryoti and News Agencies
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13111
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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