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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Abbas says ready for direct talks with Israel |
| 2010-07-27 |
| Autoedited by Rantburg [Al Arabiya Latest] The ineffectual President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday he was ready for direct negotiations with Israel, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's accusations that the Paleostinians are avoiding the talks. "We are ready to hold direct peace negotiations with Israel," Abbas told reporters after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman. "We have negotiated with Israeli governments before, more than once. Why would we avoid such talks? We are not." Netanyahu told the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defense earlier on Monday that the Paleostinians were trying to sneak out of direct negotiations while Israel was ready to start them "immediately." "We have an understanding with the Americans that we need to move now, without any delay, to direct negotiations, but in response, we have a clear Paleostinian attempt to avoid this process," Netanyahu said. "They are trying to stall and to sneak away from direct negotiations and to cause the Arab League to shackle the talks." Israel, he said, was ready to start direct negotiations "immediately." "We are ready to start as early as next week," he said. Netanyahu's remarks were made just days ahead of a meeting in Cairo between the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab League at which the Paleostinian leader will discuss the indirect talks with Israel, which began in May, and will also address the pressing question of a shift to direct negotiations. Abbas has repeatedly said he would not move to direct talks without tangible progress on the key issues of borders and security, and without a complete freeze on Jewish settlement building on occupied Paleostinian land. Although Israel has been observing a temporary freeze on new settlement construction in the West Bank, that moratorium runs out on September 26. Meanwhile Abbas is due to meet Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Tuesday in Amman before flying to Cairo. Netanyahu is under pressure to renew the freeze in order to build trust between the two parties. But until now, the hawkish Israeli leader has studiously avoided any such pledges -- with some of his closest allies vowing to begin building as soon as the moratorium expires. U.S. President Barack Obama said during a meeting with Netanyahu at the White House earlier this month that he hoped direct Middle East peace talks would start before the end of September when the freeze runs out. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Must be some money on the table... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-07-27 10:05 |
| #1 Translation STALL, STALL, STALL. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-07-27 00:30 |