PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he saw no prospect of renewed negotiations unless Israel halted settlement expansion and agreed to withdraw from the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem to the line of June 1967.
But Mr Abbas and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu appear to be talking past one another. On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu had rejected a return to the 1967 border.
In an interview with the al-Hayyat daily, Mr Abbas stated: “The Netanyahu government is a real problem and there is no common ground for negotiations with it. Construction in the settlements is continuing, Netanyahu is declaring Jerusalem and [Palestinian] refugees topics not up for negotiations, so what is there to talk about?”
While Mr Abbas has set no preconditions for talks, he said: “It is unacceptable for negotiations to resume while the Israeli side does not respect its obligations under the road map” plan endorsed by the Quartet comprising the US, UN, EU and Russia in 2003.
This calls, inter alia, for a freeze on all Israeli settlement activity ahead of negotiations on the final status of Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.
Mr Abbas argued that he cannot accept Israel’s insistence on completing 2,500 housing units under construction, and 1,042 recently approved by defence minister Ehud Barak. Mr Abbas also held that negotiations must resume where they were suspended when the previous government launched its military offensive against Gaza last December. “There were maps drafted by both sides and proposals for territorial exchanges, therefore we cannot return to point zero,” Mr Abbas asserted.
His comments followed Tuesday’s tripartite meeting with Mr Netanyahu and US president Barack Obama, and Mr Obama’s address to the UN on Wednesday.
Mr Abbas and his aides praised Mr Obama’s declaration that the US seeks to end “the occupation that began in 1967” and to establish a “viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory”.
While Mr Abbas remains determined to secure Israeli commitments on settlements and Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 line ahead of full-scale negotiations, he is in no position to refuse to talk, in spite of widespread popular Palestinian opposition.
Al-Ayam, a Ramallah-based Palestinian daily, reported that Mr Obama told Mr Abbas during their bilateral meeting that the US has not changed its mind on a settlement freeze, but said no issue should block negotiations.
Furthermore, a source close to Mr Abbas told The Irish Times the Palestinian Authority (PA) is broke and cannot afford to disappoint the US and Europe by stalling on a point of principle.
In a sign that Mr Abbas has capitulated, prime minister Salam Fayyad announced international donors will make up the PA’s $400 million (€273 million) budget deficit by year’s end, and Mr Abbas’s confidant Yasser Abed Rabbo welcomed preliminary talks initiated by the Obama administration aimed at bridging the gulf between the sides.
