U.S. SAYS READY TO TALK MIDEAST PEACE; ABBAS CALLS FOR CONFERENCE
The United States declared at the United Nations on Tuesday it was “ready
to talk” with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rejected U.S.-led Middle
East peace efforts as “impossible” after Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital.
During a rare U.N.
Security Council address, Abbas instead called for an international conference
to be held by mid-2018 to kick-start the stalled peace process with Israel and
create a “multilateral mechanism” to oversee it. He left the chamber before
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke.
Palestinians view
the Trump administration’s intentions on Middle East peace with deep skepticism
after Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy and recognized Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel and initiated the move of the U.S. embassy there from Tel
Aviv.
“Our negotiators are
sitting right behind me, ready to talk. But we will not chase after you. The
choice, Mr. President, is yours,” said Haley, referring to Trump’s son-in-law
and adviser, Jared Kushner, and U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt.
Kushner and
Greenblatt are working on a new peace plan and met with the 15 Security Council
ambassadors behind closed doors after the public meeting on Tuesday. Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson said last week the plan was “fairly well advanced.”
There has been little detail on the plan so far.
White House
spokesman Josh Raffel said a peace plan would be presented “when it is done and
the time is right.” But following Trump’s decision, the Palestinians no longer
view the United States as a neutral negotiator.
“We met with the
President of the United States, Donald Trump, four times in 2017, and we have
expressed our absolute readiness to reach a historic peace agreement,” Abbas
said. “Yet this administration has not clarified its position. Is it for the
two-state solution, or for one-state?”
Israel considers all
of Jerusalem to be its capital. The Palestinians want the eastern part of the
city as the capital of a future independent state of their own that would
include the West Bank and Gaza.
Jerusalem is home to
sites holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians.
The Trump
administration has given qualified support to the two-state solution, saying it
would back it if the parties agreed to it.
Abbas, who shunned a
visit by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to the region last month, said the
conference should include the Palestinians, Israel, the five permanent U.N.
Security Council members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France
- the European Union and the United Nations.
French U.N.
Ambassador Francois Delattre said Paris was open to studying Abbas’
suggestions. Deputy British U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Allen described U.S.
leadership on the issue as “indispensable.”
Israel’s U.N.
Ambassador Danny Danon said Abbas was part of the problem, not the solution,
and that the “only way to move forward is direct negotiations” between Israel
and the Palestinians.
Russian U.N.
Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the so-called Quartet - made up of the United
Nations, the United States, Russia and the EU - and the League of Arab States
could play a role in kick-starting the stalled peace process.
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