Posted on 09/18/2009 3:21:40 PM PDT by Steelfish
September 18, 2009
President Obama Blow As US Fails To Secure Israel Peace Talks Progress
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem and Giles Whittell in Washington
A frantic effort by the US Middle East envoy to wrest an agreement that would restart peace talks appeared to have ended in failure yesterday, inflicting President Obamas first important foreign policy setback.
George Mitchell shuttled between Jerusalem and the West Bank attempting to wrest an agreement on settlement building before the UN General Assembly meeting next week.
US officials had hoped that Israeli and Palestinian leaders would meet on the sidelines of the assembly, kick-starting peace negotiations that have been stalled for nearly nine months. But a spokesperson for the State Department told reporters, There has been no agreement to have the trilateral meeting . Of course we were hoping for a breakthrough.
It appeared that Israeli and Palestinian leaders remained at odds over several key issues, most notably Israels West Bank settlements. Mr Mitchell was said to be pushing Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, for a year-long freeze but an Israeli official said that this was not an option.
It would consider a freeze of up to nine months, the official said, excluding approximately 3,000 housing units that had already been approved. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, told Mr Mitchell yesterday that he would not resume talks without a complete freeze, according to the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. We once again reiterated that there is no middle ground solutions for settlements. A settlement freeze is a settlement freeze.
The White House put an optimistic gloss on Mr Mitchells efforts. Asked about a nine-month freeze, Robert Gibbs, President Obamas spokesman, said that it could be very helpful to the overall process.
Despite the evidence of faltering diplomacy....
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Has Obama done anything good?
Nothing that Obama has done on the foreign policy front has ‘worked’..unless of course you are American’s enemies, in which case you would have to be delighted with Obama’s efforts to destroy America. The man needs to be impeached!
Isn’t that a typo? Shouldn’t it be: “President Obama Blows...”?
He called Kanye West a jackass.
Hahaha....you’re right.
Obama blow? Giving, receiving, or snorting?
go, Bibi. stand tall.
How can this be when the “smartest woman in the world” is Sec of State?? Maybe the folks in Israel heard about her FJB comment when she was first lady.
Ya, “first set back”??? What’s he done right???? Bibi is not a pushover like this wuss in chief.
Unf*cking- believable. These gibbering Ivy league idiots actually think "Hope" is a strategy.
I guess I actually don't believe it. Nobody could be this stupid and live. There must be another explanation.
SE Mom posted what he did right,
SE Mom to Islaminaction
He called Kanye West a jackass.
Wasn’t it just a couple weeks ago that there was a lot of hubub about restarting the Mideast Peace talks and that Obama was going to sit down and negotiate a deal? As I recall, things were reportedly all set.
True,true. I stand corrected. :o)
I just knew Larry Sanders was going to be in this article somewhere...
:)
In any event, this was doomed from the start.
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