4.28 PM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

US efforts fail to break Mideast deadlock again

Clinton meets with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas as plans affot to resume the effort. (AFP)

Published
By AFP

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to break the deadlock in Arab-Israeli peace talks Friday when she met here with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas but both planned to resume the effort.

The pair met in New York after US officials bluntly told both the Israelis and Palestinians not to wreck the fledgling peace negotiations.

Abbas had earlier rejected an Israeli suggestion on Friday that a compromise may be possible ahead of the scheduled end of a moratorium on Jewish settlement building that threatens to derail the peace talks.

"The meeting lasted 25 minutes. Our efforts will continue," Clinton spokesman Philip Crowley told AFP after Abbas and the chief US diplomat met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"Nothing new until now," Abbas told AFP after emerging from his evening meeting with Clinton, before he added that he would have "another meeting with Hillary" on Saturday.

Crowley said a meeting at that time is "probable."

Abbas advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina said: "We're discussing American efforts about the continuation of the negotiations."

Clinton has sought to use her clout to bring renewed impetus to the flagging peace process, and has persuaded the two sides to go back to the negotiating table for the first time after a 20-month hiatus.

But the talks are overshadowed by the end of an Israeli moratorium on settlement building, which is due to expire this weekend.

Israel indicated it was willing to cut a deal acceptable to the United States and the Palestinians.

"Israel is prepared to reach a compromise acceptable to all parties," a senior Israeli government official said when asked about US President Barack Obama's call for the moratorium to be extended.

But he also stressed that "there cannot be zero construction" in West Bank settlements.

But Abbas Friday rejected any compromise that does not guarantee a "complete halt" to settlement activity, Abu Rudeina told AFP earlier.

"A total freeze must be maintained on settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, including in Jerusalem. We reject any partial solution," he said.

Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, echoed a toughening US line toward both the Palestinians and Israelis.

"We are urging Israel to extend the moratorium," Feltman said.

"We also are making clear to the Palestinians we do not believe that it is in their interest to walk out of the talks," he said.

"At this point, we are urging both sides to create the atmosphere that is most conducive to a successful conclusion to the negotiations," Feltman said.

"We don't think either side should be using the threat to walk out, to interrupt the process," he added.

He admitted that the discussions "are pretty intense right now" as Washington tries to keep the negotiations on track.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa, in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, told reporters that Israel must show a readiness to extend the freeze if the peace talks are to continue.

Obama on Thursday firmly restated his conviction that the moratorium should be extended. On the same day, he issued a passionate call in the UN General Assembly for the world to back his peace drive.

On Friday, Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Israelis and Palestinians to do all they can to sustain the direct peace talks.

The previous round of direct negotiations collapsed when Israel launched a devastating military offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in December 2008.

Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appear to have made any progress towards narrowing their differences during talks last week in Egypt and in Jerusalem attended by Clinton.

US officials have suggested a three-month extension to the moratorium, during which time the two sides could agree on borders, which could neutralize the settlements dispute, a senior Palestinian official said.

Abbas told AFP this week he was "not opposed to a settlement freeze for a month or two."

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, to be illegal.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 Jewish settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.

Israel captured Arab east Jerusalem in 1967, and considers the city its "eternal and indivisible" capital.

Another core issue is Palestinian refugees. The Palestinians want Israel to recognise the "right of return" of those who fled or were expelled when the Jewish state was created in 1948. With their descendants, they number 4.7 million people.

Israel rejects the demand.