Posted on 05/02/2008 11:46:47 AM PDT by Alouette
LONDON - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad warned Friday that peace talks could collapse unless Israel changes course and accepts a more conciliatory approach in negotiations.
Fayyad, in London for diplomatic talks, said Israel has not complied with any of the obligations set out at the U.S.-backed peace conference in Annapolis, Md., late last year.
"Israel has failed to meet any of its obligations from the road map, including a freeze in settlement activity," he said. "Unless that changes, the political process is being stripped of its meaning."
Fayyad gave a highly pessimistic progress report after meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. He said the Palestinian government had met its commitments by reforming its financial sector and praised the donor community for providing additional money desperately needed by Palestinian authorities.
In response, Israeli diplomats released remarks that Livni made in private meetings with Fayyad and other leaders earlier in the day.
They said she had told Fayyad that 60 road blocks, one major checkpoint, and other impediments to Palestinian freedom of movement had been removed, and that an additional 5,000 work permits have been granted to help Palestinians seeking work inside Israel.
"Many of these measures involve significant security risks for Israel," she said, according to the released remarks. "We expect the (Palestinian Authority) to live up to its obligations in order to ensure that these steps will not be exploited by terrorists and endanger further progress."
But she said Israel needs assurances that the Palestinians will actively fight terrorism before it takes any further steps.
Fayyad said the Palestinian Authority needed roughly $1 billion to meet its obligations for the second half of this year.
But he said Israel had refused to take steps that would allow normal economic activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The remarks came after the Middle East peace Quartet — the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — urged Israel to cease all settlement activity in the West Bank. The diplomats called for more negotiations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
There were no signs of a breakthrough, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said an agreement on the creation of an independent Palestinian state remains possible during President Bush's waning days in office.
"It's hard work and it's labor intensive and I know there's skepticism, but I think they do have a chance to get an agreement by the end of the year and that's what we're going to work for every day," she said.
Rice cited Northern Ireland as an example of a conflict that seemed intractable until just before peace was achieved.
Rice said Arab countries that have pledged money to the Palestinian Authority, but not delivered, will be prodded to come up with the funding they have promised.
Last year, a Paris donor meeting netted $7.7 billion in aid pledges to the Palestinians over three years. The money was earmarked both for the Palestinian budget and reform and development programs. The optimism that surrounded the pledges has long since faded.
"Clearly when you make a pledge you ought to fulfill it, and that will be my message," Rice said.
According to U.S. figures, only $215 million of roughly $835 million pledged by Arab League nations has been handed over to the Palestinians, with the shortfall contributing to the economic and humanitarian crisis in the occupied territories.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a special Quartet envoy to the region, is focusing on the economic crisis. He expressed frustration Friday at the slow pace of negotiations with the Israeli government on agreements to lift roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank so normal business activity can resume.
With Blair's help, the struggling Palestinian government is organizing an investment conference in Bethlehem later this month. The meeting is designed to showcase moneymaking possibilities in the region for investors willing to gamble on the possibility of improved security conditions.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, reading the statement after the Friday morning meeting, said the Quartet "expressed its deep concern" at Israel's continued settlement building on the West Bank and called for all outposts built since March 2001 to be dismantled.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the Jewish state was not building new settlements and was only allowing "natural growth" in existing settlements.
"We have not changed our position on this," he said.
The written statement by the Quartet members read out by Ban explicitly states that "natural growth" of the settlements is unacceptable.
He also expressed concern over worsening humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.
A U.N. official reported Friday that rising prices and funding shortages have forced the U.N. to stop providing emergency food aid to more than 13 percent of the 750,000 Palestinian refugees it generally feeds in Gaza.
___
Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Anne Gearan contributed to this report.
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WHEN WILL THIS KINDERGARTEN STYLE DIPLOMACY FROM THE STATE DEPT. STOP??? Give the “you guys are being naughty, too,” garbage a rest FOR ONCE. At what point will ANYONE hold the so-called palestinians responsible for being losers and “refugees” after 60 YEARS? While Israel has developed a high tech economy in the face of constant attacks from its neighbors, the jordanian/palestinians have been building bombs and looking for handouts from their corrupt leaders.
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Israel has failed to meet any of its obligations from the road map...
Might have something to do with the fact that Israel accepted the Road Map with a number of preconditions, somehthing the administration has "forgot". Among them, nothing proceede until terror ceases, armed terror groups have been disarmed, order has been restored, and incitement has stopped. In the West Bank and Gaza. While I'm sure the Quartet and the administration whould be glad to "certify" that's been done in the interest of another terror state, the fact that it hasn't is apparent to anyone not wearing blinders.
Tabster got the grand ZOT. I’m so disappointed—I wasn’t finished with my beatdown.
When the palestinians have their state. More accurately, two, since there are two governments and two sets of armed thugs administering two states of chaos. Someone should tell the administration.
Can only repeat the same things so many times. It must be frustrating to spew propaganda day after day, week after week, and not even get a nibble .
Let the peace talks stop! There is no need for a second Palestinian terrorist state. Jordan is the true Palestinian state with over 70% Palestinian now. They even have a Palestinian Queen, Queen Rania. USA needs to spend no money for this nonsense.
"Palestinians" should go home, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, wherever. Judea should not even be negotiable.
"Israel has failed to meet any of its obligations from the road map, including a freeze in settlement activity," he said. "Unless that changes, the political process is being stripped of its meaning."
If I was in charge over in Israel, I'd very publicly state:
"Oh, so WE have failed to meet any of OUR obligations? Really? Israel's official position is that first of all, we've bent over backwards to adhere to numerous agreements over the years, doing more than any other nation has, does or ever will in the hopes that by being nice, by being accomodating, our neighbors will choose to live in peace with us - as they've failed to do since decades before Israel even came into existence. Second, Israel will do more when the Arab savages who call themselves Palestinians stop murdering our innocent civilians. Until we get that most basic of the conditions to every single agreement that's ever been signed with the thugs who claim to represent the so-called "Palestinian people," no further progress is possible. In other words, in case I've not made myself clear, start acting like sane and moral human beings instead of bloodthirsty savages, and then you may get more of what you want."
...the Middle East peace Quartet — the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — urged Israel to cease all settlement activity in the West Bank. The diplomats called for more negotiations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Russia and the UN are outright enemies of Israel. Europe has returned to its old anti-semitic ways (with the fig leaf of "anti-Zionism"), and the US is over a barrel. Israel should tell these countries to stuff it (though maybe a bit more diplomatically with the US, a longtime great friend), and the UN to personally examine its own collective colon.
“Israel has failed to meet any of its obligations from the road map, including a freeze in settlement activity,” he said. “Unless that changes, the political process is being stripped of its meaning.”
Screw those damn Palestinians and their arab “friends”,
what about those pesky rockets??
When is Israel going to get tired of this crap.
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