Ramallah, January 13: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has spurned a new US effort to revive Mideast peace talks, saying he will not resume negotiations without an Israeli settlement freeze.
With Abbas digging in, an upcoming diplomatic mission by US Mideast envoy George Mitchell could be doomed from the outset.
Mitchell has said his trip is meant to persuade both sides to resume talks that broke off in December 2008. However, the US has failed to get Israel to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands the Palestinians want for their future state.
Abbas said on Tuesday that he will not resume talks under current conditions. “No, no negotiations,” he told reporters. “We won’t agree to resume negotiations without a full settlement freeze, especially in Jerusalem, for a certain period.”
Mitchell is asking for French and European Union support for the renewed push for peace in the Middle East. Mitchell, on a visit to Paris, said on Monday that “no one country, no one person can accomplish this objective alone.” After meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, he urged “a combined and concerted effort and partnership” with US allies, including France, toward resuming peace negotiations that broke down in December 2008.
From Paris, Mitchell was to travel Brussels for meetings with his counterparts from the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the US, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — and European diplomats before a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories later in the month. Kouchner and Mitchell also discussed a French proposal to eventually host a Mideast peace conference, though no details of the discussions were released.
Meanwhile, Israel has arrested two prominent Palestinian organizers of the weekly protests against Israel’s West Bank separation barrier. Activists accuse Israel of trying to stifle legitimate political dissent with its widening arrest campaign. Dozens of protesters have been rounded up since the summer.
The West Bank has been largely pacified and the barrier protests in the villages of Nalin and Bilin are among the last pockets of unrest. The barrier slices off nearly 10 percent of the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for their state.
Earlier, an Israeli missile strike killed two Hamas fighters in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian hospital officials said, but Israel denied mounting any military action in the area.
——–Agencies