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Mideast envoy George Mitchell, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in London August 26.
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26 August 2009
Meaningful Mideast Peace Talks Needed, August 26, 2009
By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington — Israeli and Palestinian leaders need to resume “meaningful” negotiations to revive stalled peace talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell said after a lengthy meeting in London.
The announcement that a meeting between the leaders may be held in several weeks to help resume the peace talks came after Netanyahu met with Mitchell for four hours August 26. Mitchell sought an agreement from Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank territories and east Jerusalem as a confidence-building measure to reassure the Palestinians, who have said they will not resume peace talks until construction in the settlements is ended.
A joint statement released in Washington said, “The Prime Minister and Senator Mitchell had a very productive meeting today where the full range of issues was discussed.”
“They agreed on the importance of restarting meaningful negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and working toward a comprehensive peace, and that all sides need to take concrete steps toward peace,” the statement said. “The prime minister and the senator made good progress today, and an Israeli delegation will meet Senator Mitchell next week in the United States to continue the conversation.”
President Obama has made resumption of the Middle East peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians a major foreign policy priority of his administration. He has been working closely with a number of Middle East leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, to get the stalled negotiations restarted.
Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have said they are opposed to all construction of settlements in the West Bank territories and east Jerusalem. Approximately 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and another 180,000 live in neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians have claimed those areas as sections of a future Palestinian state.
“The prime minister and George Mitchell agreed that there is a need to begin meaningful negotiations between Israel and Palestinians in order to move towards a regional peace agreement,” the Israelis said in a prepared statement.
While Mitchell is expected to meet next week with the Israelis, it has been suggested, but not confirmed, that Obama and Netanyahu may meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in September in New York.
While in London, Netanyahu also met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on August 25, and he is expected to meet August 27 with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
OBAMA AND MUBARAK
Obama said at a recent White House meeting with Egyptian President Mubarak that they are working to jump-start the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. “We obviously have a lot of great challenges that have to be dealt with, and we are continuing to work together to find those areas where we can find common ground and to work in concert to bring peace and security to the region,” Obama said August 18. (See “U.S., Egypt Working to Restart Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process.”)
“The Arab-Israeli situation is something that has been of ongoing interest, and we had an extensive conversation about how we could help to jump-start an effective process on all sides to move away from a status quo that is not working for the Israeli people, the Palestinian people or, I think, the region as a whole,” Obama said during the August 18 White House meeting.
“We have perhaps focused greatly on the Palestinian issue because it’s the pivotal issue, and the Palestinian issue has impact on the world, on the region, whether for the West or also for the United States,” Mubarak added.
Asked about reports that the Israeli government has not granted permits for building new settlements in the West Bank territories, Obama said that there has been movement in the right direction.
“I came in [to office] from the start saying that all parties concerned had to take some concrete steps to restart serious negotiations, to resolve what has been a long-standing conflict that is not good for the Israeli people and is not good for its neighbors,” Obama said. “And I think that the Israeli government has taken discussions with us very seriously.”
Obama said he is encouraged by reports that some checkpoints in the West Bank area have been removed, that Palestinian Authority security forces have improved and have been able to deal with security concerns in the West Bank, and that there has been increased economic activity in the West Bank.
“This is creating a climate in which it’s possible for us to see some positive steps and hopefully negotiate toward a final resolution of these long-standing issues,” Obama said.
“Everybody’s going to have to take steps. Everybody’s going to have to take some risks,” he added.
What foreign affairs decisions should President Obama consider? Comment on America.gov’s blog Obama Today.
