Jerusalem, September 15: Washington’s special Mideast envoy pressed Israel to curtail settlement construction, but announced no breakthroughs after more than two hours of talks Tuesday.
The outcome of George Mitchell’s showdown with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be crucial to U.S. President Barack Obama’s credibility as a Mideast peace broker.
If Mitchell fails to wrest significant concessions from Netanyahu, the Arab world could become skeptical of Obama and the unprecedented pressure he has put on Israel to halt settlement expansion.
For Mitchell, the clock is ticking: the U.S. hopes to bring Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together next week on the sidelines of a U.N. meeting in New York, in what would be cast as a prelude to renewed peacemaking.
Netanyahu’s office described Tuesday’s talks as “good,” and said he would hold a second, unscheduled meeting with Mitchell on Wednesday. Later Tuesday, Mitchell sat down with Abbas to gauge his willingness to meet with Netanyahu even without a settlement freeze.
Abbas has repeatedly said he would not resume official talks with Israel unless settlement construction comes to a total halt. But aides have said he might agree to an informal get-together with Netanyahu in New York.
Mitchell met with Netanyahu a day after the Israeli leader again rejected U.S. calls for a freeze on the construction in settlements built on land claimed by the Palestinians. He said plans to build nearly 3,000 new apartments in the West Bank would remain on course and there would be no restrictions on expanding Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.
Palestinians claim both areas for a future state that would also include the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has said he would suspend other construction, hoping that would be enough of an overture for the Americans and the Palestinians. But that tradeoff hasn’t elicited much enthusiasm in either quarter.
As they entered their meeting, Mitchell expressed hope of bringing “this phase of our discussions to early conclusion” and to “move forward in our common search for comprehensive peace in the region.”
If Mitchell bridges the gaps between the two sides, he will set the stage for the first encounter between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders since Netanyahu took office in March. There has been speculation that Obama, who is also attending the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, would join an Abbas-Netanyahu meeting.
Israeli officials said Tuesday that President Shimon Peres met clandestinely with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Jerusalem last week to try to pressure the Palestinians to meet with Netanyahu. The Israeli presidency is a ceremonial position, but Peres carries cachet in the international community for advancing the landmark 1993 accord between Israel and the Palestinians, which won him a Nobel Peace Prize.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the visit had been secret.
An Abbas-Netanyahu meeting would not necessarily signal a watershed. Israel and the Palestinians have held multiple rounds of talks without producing an accord ending decades of conflict.
And this time things could be even tougher.
Netanyahu has grudgingly accepted the concept of Palestinian statehood — but only under intense heavy U.S. pressure and with conditions the Palestinians reject. He is ideologically committed to Israel’s settlement enterprise and reluctant to make the territorial concessions necessary to strike a deal, arguing they would compromise Israel’s security.
Palestinian militants’ takeover of the Gaza Strip after Israel’s evacuation of the territory in 2005 has made these fears more tangible.
Abbas, for his part, would be skewered at home for agreeing to launch negotiations without first assuring a complete settlement freeze.
The Palestinian leader held talks with Netanyahu’s dovish predecessor, Ehud Olmert, for more than a year without achieving an agreement. That has cost Abbas credibility among his own constituency, which has narrowed considerably since Islamic Hamas militants overran Gaza in 2007, leaving him controlling only the West Bank.
-Agencies