Clinton ends Middle East talks with no progress made
In an ABC News interview, Clinton again gave voice to US hopes that Israel would extend its partial construction moratorium past a September 30 expiration date. But Israel reaffirmed the 10-month freeze on housing starts in settlements in the occupied West Bank would end on schedule, and a Palestinian threat to walk out of the nascent negotiations, if building resumed, loomed over the US peace effort.
Officials close to the talks said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected a proposal to extend the moratorium by three months.
Wrapping up a round of negotiations that began in Egypt on Tuesday, Clinton held talks in Jordan with King Abdullah after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city Ramallah.
“Today, his Majesty and I discussed ongoing negotiations and I expressed my confidence that Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas can make the difficult decisions necessary to resolve all of the core issues within one year,” she told a news conference in Amman.
Those issues include the borders of a Palestinian state and the future of settlements, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Abbas’s spokesman, however, made it clear the Palestinians had not budged from their demand the moratorium continue on land Israel captured in a 1967 war, territory they want for a future state.
“The president reiterated to Secretary Clinton the Palestinian position regarding the requirements for the continuation of the peace process, specifically the issue of freezing settlement construction and ending the occupation,” said the spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Israel’s Channel 1 TV he had raised the idea with Netanyahu to keep the moratorium in place for another three months, hoping to buy time for negotiators to agree on the borders of a Palestinian state.
Israel has said such a deal could entail a land swap under which it would keep major settlement blocs in the West Bank. Once frontier lines were agreed, Mubarak said, Israel could build within its future borders and Palestinians could do the same, effectively resolving the moratorium issue and keeping the peace talks alive.
Officials close to the talks said the US, which launched the face-to-face negotiations in Washington on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus, had made a similar proposal. US officials declined to comment.
“We are working hard to make sure there remains a conducive atmosphere to constructive talks,” Clinton said in the ABC interview in Jerusalem, noting that it took Netanyahu “a lot of political capital” to achieve the moratorium in the first place.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s bureau said he was standing by his position not to extend the moratorium. He has said he intends to limit the scope of future settlement construction. The settlements are deemed by the World Court to be illegal, a finding disputed by Israel. Palestinians fear the enclaves will deny them a viable and contiguous country.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would meet next week and set a new date for leaders to convene.
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