Israelis say deal near with U.S. on Mideast talks

Thursday, October 22, 2009 Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:03pm EDT


Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-] Text [+]

By Nasra Ismail in Jerusalem for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

JERUSALEM - U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy is close to a deal with Israel on terms for resuming peace talks with the Palestinians, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.
"There appears to be a meeting of the minds and hopefully the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue will be able to re-start in the near future," an Israeli official said, summing up talks held by negotiators for Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin Netanyahu in Washington.
Under the prospective deal the negotiations could be held on the basis of two decades-old U.N. Security Council resolutions, 242 and 338, another official said.
Such a formula could be acceptable to Israel since it interprets those resolutions as falling short of a demand to withdraw from all of the West Bank, territory it captured in a 1967 war.
Palestinians, who seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hold that the resolutions, which call for "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict," obliges Israel to return to pre-1967 lines.
Washington apparently hopes to persuade Palestinian President Mahmoud AbbasPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to peace talks based on the resolutions, enabling each side to cleave to its own interpretation and avoid conceding diplomatic ground on borders before negotiations resume.
However, Abbas has given no sign he has dropped a main Palestinian condition for a resumption of negotiations -- an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank in accordance with a 2003 U.S.-backed peace "road map" that charts a path to a Palestinian state.
ABBAS AIDE: A RETURN TO SQUARE ONE
Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters Palestinians objected to basing the talks solely on 242. "This means a return to square one," Rdainah said. "It would be a time-wasting process."
A progress report U.S. Secretary of State Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton is due to deliver within days to Obama on Middle East envoy George MitchellGeorge Mitchell's mediation efforts could clarify the situation.
Many Palestinians felt humiliated when Obama last month called for Israeli restraint on settlements rather than repeat his call for a freeze.
Palestinians fear that Israel's West Bank settlements, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice, would block the formation of a viable and contiguous state.
Netanyahu has refused to halt construction in settlements, arguing he needed to accommodate growing settler families. Israeli officials say Netanyahu has offered Mitchell a nine-month freeze on some settlement expansion, but only in areas beyond the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu has agreed to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But he said such a state must be demilitarized and Palestinians have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a demand they fear could undermine claims to resettle or compensate Palestinian refugees of a 1948 war over Israel's founding. Continued...

View article on single page
function goToPage(num){ var url = document.location.href+""; var newurl = url.replace(/#sl_CommentsInputAnchor/,""); var newNum = 'pageNumber='+num var sep = (newurl.indexOf('?') >= 0) ? '&' : '?'; newurl = newurl + sep + 'pageNumber='+num; // vbc var sep = (newurl.indexOf('?') >= 0) ? '&' : '?'; newurl = newurl + sep + 'virtualBrandChannel=' + 11604; document.location.href = newurl; } var numPages = 2 * 1; var currentPage = 1; if(currentPage != 1){ document.write('Previous Page '); } else { document.write('Previous Page '); } for(var i=1;i<=numPages;i++){ if(i==currentPage){ document.write(''+i+''); }else{ document.write(''+i+''); } if (i < numPages) { document.write(' | '); } } if(numPages != currentPage){ document.write(' Next Page'); } else { document.write(' Next Page'); } Previous Page 1 | 2 Next PagePrevious Page 1 | 2 Next Page


addImpression("3098091_Share Links");


Share: Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
Yahoo!
Facebook
LinkedIn
addImpression("3098079_Next Article");


Next Article: Canada gunman holds hostages in Edmonton building



addImpression("E1022091412_56167");
Also On Reuters
Blog: Believers of 2010 GOP majority in "la la land": Dems

Analysis: Insider trading wire taps sign of things to come

Full Coverage: Reuters Washington Summit 2009

More International News Afghan election officials fired ahead of run-off | Video
Pakistan hits Taliban as schools ordered shut | Video
Iran, 3 powers have till Friday to OK nuclear deal | Video
Rio police kill 7; total of 33 dead in drug war | Video
Canada gunman holds hostages in Edmonton building
More International News...

Posted by BiodunIginla at 4:02 AM Labels: bbc news Israeli-Palestinian conflict, benjamin netanyahu, nasra ismail, Obama 0 comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post

Create a Link

Older Post Home