Current round of negotiations without preconditions

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

De palestijnen beginnen dus al met een achterstand, omdat eerdere
toezeggingen niet langer gelden, en Israel komt daarna met mededeling
dat woningen worden gebouwd in Oost-Jerusalem.

Wat is dan de betekenis van "the US expects both sides to behave
seriously, with honesty and in goodwill, because if one of the sides, in
our judgment, does not fulfil our expectations, we will make our
concerns clear and we will act accordingly in order to overcome every
obstacle"????

Groet / Cees

US ignores Ehud Olmert's concessions
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/us-ignores-ehud-olmerts-concessions/story-e6frg6so-1225838879424
THE Obama administration yesterday discarded far-reaching offers made to
the Palestinians by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert as it
announced the two parties had agreed to resume peace talks that have
been frozen for more than a year.

Reports last night said US special envoy for the Middle East, George
Mitchell, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the understandings reached
following the 2007 Annapolis Conference were non-binding in the current
round of negotiations.

Haaretz reported that Mr Mitchell's deputy David Hale said the
negotiations after Annapolis and the understandings reached would not be
binding.

Mr Olmert had gone further in offering concessions than previous
leaders, proposing an Israeli withdrawal from 94 per cent of the West
Bank with the remaining 6 per cent swapped for an equivalent swath of
Israeli territory. In addition, he proposed international governance of
the holy sites in Jerusalem and the symbolic acceptance of about 5000
Palestinian refugees into Israel.

Mr Abbas never responded to Mr Olmert's offer, but the Palestinians
insisted the negotiations resume from where they stopped during Mr
Olmert's term as prime minister.

But the report last night said the US accepted Israel's position on the
matter, which was to ignore everything that was not signed as part of an
agreement.

The US will play an active role in the indirect negotiations about to
get under way and will "act accordingly" if the sides fail to make progress.

Palestinian officials said yesterday Mr Mitchell would not simply be a
messenger shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators but
would be proposing ideas as well. According to the Palestinians, an
American official has told them that "the US expects both sides to
behave seriously, with honesty and in goodwill, because if one of the
sides, in our judgment, does not fulfil our expectations, we will make
our concerns clear and we will act accordingly in order to overcome
every obstacle".

The Palestinians have been seeking such assurance from Washington for
fear that the more powerful Israelis might attempt to ride roughshod
over them.

The announcement of the resumed talks came as US Vice-President Joe
Biden arrived in Israel, the highest-level American visitor since Barack
Obama became President. Although the Israeli-Palestinian talks are
certain to figure in his meetings with Mr Netanyahu, the fact that Mr
Mitchell will not attend suggests that the focus of Mr Biden's trip will
be the Iranian nuclear threat.

Mr Biden is the latest high-ranking American to have visited Israel in
an apparent effort to ensure that it does not undertake a strike against
Iranian nuclear facilities on its own. Jerusalem has become increasingly
concerned at the failure to impose meaningful sanctions on Iran. In an
interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot before his visit,
Mr Biden said: "I can promise the people in Israel that we will confront
as allies every security challenge that we will face."

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