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« on: November 27, 2007, 07:06:14 PM » |
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Israel, Palestinians aim for 2008 deal
Correspondents in Annapolis | November 28, 2007
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland: Israel and the Palestinians have pledged to seek a peace deal by the end of 2008 as they seized on a major US-sponsored conference to revive negotiations frozen for seven years.
Flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, US President George W. Bush read out the pledge to top diplomats and others from 50 countries and organisations meeting in Annapolis, Maryland.
?We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008,? the statement said.
In a keynote speech marking what amounts to his biggest push for Middle East peace since he took office in 2001, Mr Bush said the time was ripe for an end to the six-decade conflict, despite rising extremism and violence in the region.
Brushing aside sceptics, Mr Bush told delegates meeting in a building of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis: ?I believe that now is precisely the right time to begin these negotiations - for a number of reasons.?
He cited a new willingness among the leaders of both sides as well as global support for fresh negotiations, and warned ?we must not cede victory to the extremists.?
The US leader acknowledged sealing a deal would not be easy, and in a sign of the difficulties ahead tens of thousands of Palestinian Islamists poured on to the streets in Gaza and the West Bank in protests which left one Palestinian dead.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank were also anxiously watching the outcome of the talks fearing they could spell the end of their dream of a ?Greater Israel.?
But Mr Abbas said the conference and international climate presented an exceptional opportunity for peace that would ?not repeat itself,? while Mr Olmert vowed Israel was prepared to make a ?painful compromise? to achieve peace.
The joint statement from the Palestinians and Israelis was a victory for Mr Bush, as right up until the last minute the two delegations had been haggling over the text in the presence of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
?We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples,? it said.
And they promised to ?usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition.?
The first meeting of a top-level steering committee is to be held on December 12, and the two sides agreed ?to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues.?
Major differences remain between the Israelis and Palestinians over core issues like the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
But Mr Olmert seized the opportunity to call for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal.
?I am pleased to see here in this hall representatives of Arab countries. Most of them do not have diplomatic relations with Israel. The time has come for you as well,? he said.
He also appealed for an end to the decades-old Arab boycott of Israel.
?The time has come to end the boycott, the alienation and the obliviousness toward the state of Israel. It does not help you and it hurts us.?
In another major coup, the US administration had coaxed Saudi Arabia into attending the conference, which marks the first time that Riyadh has sat with Israel to discuss peace.
Saudi Arabia is the architect of an Arab peace initiative offering formal Arab diplomatic ties with Israel in return for an Israeli pullout from all land occupied in the 1967 war.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told the conference that the Saudis ?support the launching of serious and continuing talks? aimed at tackling the final status issues.
But he stood firm on the Arab initiatative.
?Israel, and the world, must understand that peace and the retention of the occupied Arab territories are incompatible and impossible to reconcile or achieve,? he said.
The Saudi ambassador to the US, Adel al-Juber, underscored the point later when he told reporters that ?normalization happens after there is peace.?
In launching a new push for peace, the US has sought to involve moderate Arab states, arguing that all sides share a concern about Iran's rising influence following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Iran is accused of backing militant groups throughout the Middle East, including the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which seized power from Mr Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip in June.
AFP
Certainly looks like this is one of those "peace" talks that develop good ideas and policies that would lat a few months and then things would go back to the way they are. As good as these intentions are I am not holding my breath for this one.
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