Subscribe to Print Edition | Mon., October 01, 2007 , | | Israel Time: 23:40 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Print Edition
Diplomacy
Defense Arts & Leisure Real Estate Jewish World National Advertising
Magazine Week's End Business Opinion Rosner's Domain Anglo File Books Travel
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the UN on Friday. (Reuters)
del.icio.us
Digg It!  new
Last update - 18:12 30/09/2007
Israel worried PA will harden its stance ahead of peace summit
By Barak Ravid, Avi Issacharoff, Shlomo Shamir and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies

Israel is concerned over a hardening of Palestinian positions ahead of the first meeting, to be held on Tuesday, of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams working on a joint statement before November's regional peace conference.

A senior government official close to the talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said "the real gaps between the parties will be revealed for the first time" at the meeting.

Abbas and Olmert will meet at Olmert's Jerusalem residence, where the PA chairman and his team will be guests in Olmert's sukkah.

Advertisement
Meanwhile, Abbas met Sunday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo for talks that centered on the agenda for the upcoming conference.

"We have to go there with a clear and specific document, after which it could be possible to start detailed negotiations on what we call final status issues," Abbas said after the meeting.

"I believe that going there with a general statement would not be beneficial," he said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit the region in mid-October "for consultations with the Palestinian and Israeli parties, Egypt and maybe other Arab states to prepare for the conference", the official Middle East News Agency reported.

Since the militant Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in June, Israel has been working to strengthen Abbas' more moderate Fatah faction, whose leadership is now confined to the West Bank.

The regional conference, which the U.S. has announced will take place at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is one of the considerations preventing a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, a senior security source said last week.

"If there are five weeks left until the conference, would it be right to be in the midst of a large-scale operation in Gaza at that time? Is that what will bring the Saudis, or even Abbas?" the source said. The remark came in the context of Defense Minister Ehud Barak's recent statement that each day brings the decision on a large-scale operation closer.

On Monday, Israel is to release 90 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture for the Muslim holiday Ramadan. The government official noted that no new gestures would be offered at Tuesday's meeting.

The official also said that the groups advising Abbas, particularly the Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) headed by Saeb Erekat and composed of Palestinian and other Arab legal experts born or educated in the U.S. or Europe, are hardening their stances ahead of the conference.

Israel sees the NSU as a "diplomatic elite unit" responsible for the opinion handed down by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that the separation fence violates international law.

A senior official said the NSU is presenting Abbas with position papers demanding a schedule for progress following November's regional conference in Washington. The NSU also opposes dividing Jerusalem based on demographic considerations and insists on a division based on the 1967 borders. "This is a non-starter" the official said.

However, Abbas told U.S. media outlets recently that the Palestinian Authority would not agree to the Clinton plan ceding to it 92 percent of the West Bank and would insist on full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines.

The Palestinians have been pressing a reluctant Israel to discuss in depth matters at the core of any future agreement on Palestinian statehood - the shape of final borders and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Israel is pursuing a vaguer track, and has said hopes the conference will yield only a "declaration of principles."

"Israel's main message to the Arab countries is that it is their duty to support and encourage moderate Palestinians without demands and preconditions," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Haaretz Saturday. "We are telling the Arabs, 'if they [the Palestinians] want to compromise, don't judge them. Don't present demands and don't dictate the outcome of the conflict,'" Livni said. "Our message to the Arab leaders is 'don't be more Palestinian than the Palestinians.'"

Livni also said that instead of waiting for the end of the process, "for every positive step of Israel toward the Palestinians, the Arab countries should respond with a positive step toward Israel."

Livni said it was "too early to tell" whether she had managed to promote a front of moderate Arab countries to assist the process, but that "there is understanding of the common interests between the Arab world and Israel." Livni, who will be addressing the UN General Assembly Monday, also said "Israel should not give up its strategic interests during the process."

Livni tried to dissuade Abbas at an hour-long meeting Friday in New York from insisting on a schedule and an immediate solution to the core issues. She hopes he will agree to deal with consensus issues at this point. "We must be courageous in our decision making, but also smart enough to advance the process in a realistic way, preventing it from failing," Livni said she told Abbas.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse over the weekend, Abbas said that immediately after the summit, the parties would begin talks to reach a detailed and comprehensive agreement, and that the talks would follow a schedule that would not exceed six months.

He said representatives of the Quartet, the Arab League, the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the G8 would attend the conference, which he said would open on November 15. Abbas also said he hoped to reach agreement with Israel on a document ahead of the talks that would include clear principles.

Abbas confident Saudis will attend summit

Abbas expressed confidence in an article published Saturday that Saudi Arabia would attend the November peace conference.

Rice has said key regional players would be invited in an effort to give the meeting more sweep, but no invitations have been sent yet.

But regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have been reluctant to commit, first wanting proof the meeting will address the conflict's most divisive issues, like final borders, the status of disputed Jerusalem and Palestinian demands to repatriate refugees displaced by the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation.

In an interview released Saturday on the Washington Post Web site, Abbas said he met with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister and came away with the impression that a delegation from Riyadh would attend.

"Saudi Arabia had reservations in the beginning because the whole situation was very vague. Now everything is clear," Abbas said. "Yesterday, I met with Prince Saud al-Faisal, and he was satisfied. So I believe they will attend the conference."

In New York on Wednesday, the prince described his talks with U.S. officials about the meeting as encouraging, but would not commit his country's participation. Saudi Arabia does not have ties with Israel, but has proposed a sweeping peace plan endorsed by the Arab League that offers full recognition of Israel in exchange for a total withdrawal from lands it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and the creation of a Palestinian state.



Related articles
UN human rights chief: We failed in handling Israel-PA conflict
Saudi FM: Israel should halt settlement building before talks
Syrian newspaper: U.S. must alter policy for Mideast summit to succeed
Bookmark to del.icio.us
Lights out
Electric company cancels emergency bond issue due to credit rating reduction fears.
No free lunches
Accountant General Zelekha demands VIPs pay taxes on their free medical benefits.
  1.   Congregation of dark forces and the slaughter house 00:29  |  Brod 30/09/07
  2.   The impossible 01:59  |  Paul 30/09/07
  3.   israel is the occupier. want peace, give it up! 03:25  |  bashar 30/09/07
  4.   Did Abbas learn from Oslo? 03:30  |  El-birawi 30/09/07
  5.   DECEPTION for Expansionist Islam. WICKED LIE of Occupation 03:34  |  Linda Rivera 30/09/07
  6.   GOOD FOR ABBAS! With Israel...There Is No Other Way. 03:36  |  Proud Pal Defender 30/09/07
  7.   One MILLION JEWISH Refugees & Descendants Must Be Compensated 03:36  |  Linda Rivera 30/09/07
  8.   Hardening stance? 03:52  |  Harold 30/09/07
  9.   Please tell me 03:58  |  Harold 30/09/07
  10.   Israel should bomb the conference 04:00  |  Harold 30/09/07
  11.   40 YEARS OF ARAB FAILURE 04:01  |  Brant 30/09/07
  12.   Stick to Your Guns 04:02  |  Abe 30/09/07
  13.   PA,, Arab League and Saudis are back to the 3 "No`s" of 1968 - 04:03  |  Dr. L. Brnd 30/09/07
  14.   The Games Continue 04:07  |  Chaim Gorenstein 30/09/07
  15.   Saudi Arabia`s Planned JIHAD AGAINST U.S/OTHER COUNTRIES 04:12  |  Linda Rivera 30/09/07
  16.   Where is the give and take? 04:14  |  R 30/09/07
  17.   The Arabs will only recognize a temp. extremely vulnerable Israel 04:20  |  Pavel 30/09/07
  18.   GOOD FOR ABBAS! With Israel...There Is No Other Way. 04:24  |  Proud Pal Defender 30/09/07
  19.   EGYPTIAN State-Controlled Paper PRAISED TEL AVIV BOMBING of Jews 04:28  |  Linda Rivera 30/09/07
  20.   The Pali hard line 04:42  |  ottomatik 30/09/07
  21.   Abbas: "Raise RIFLES Against the ISRAELI Occupation" 04:48  |  Linda Rivera 30/09/07
  22.   Scheme 04:53  |  Paul 30/09/07
  23.   It has been Israel`s longer than PA! 04:58  |  Paul 30/09/07
  24.   Planned Failure 05:02  |  Ron 30/09/07
  25.   What did you expect? 05:05  |  ralphsrant1 30/09/07
  26.   Caught with hand in the cookie jar 05:08  |  Harold 30/09/07
  27.   the quisling talks about total withdrawal from west bank,not good 05:13  |  lakshmi 30/09/07
  28.   Hardening position 05:17  |  Otto Rand 30/09/07
  29.   summit 05:31  |  Shmuelshachor 30/09/07
  30.   Abbas demands progress... What nerve!! 05:43  |  Natallie Durson 30/09/07
  31.   Olmert is time to ... 05:54  |  Danite 30/09/07
  32.   israel needs to harden its demand 06:02  |  vik 30/09/07
  33.   Do not wasting the time the final solution is Jordan Palestine St 06:18  |  e.m 30/09/07
  34.   wont work... 06:36  |  ravi 30/09/07
  35.   # 30 Yep, Fatmah, summit will be a waiste... 07:11  |  Misha 30/09/07
  36.   "Hardens"? 07:33  |  Mark Lincoln 30/09/07
  37.   Abbas maybe listening to his people at last? 07:40  |  Palestinian Brit 30/09/07
  38.   @8-10, harold, pals deserve nothing and will get nothing 07:40  |  vladimir 30/09/07
  39.   This "peace process" is the greatest sham, as in sham poo! 07:51  |  Uzi 30/09/07
  40.   Why there can never be any separate Arab political entity west of 07:53  |  Uzi 30/09/07
  41.   The win-win plan; everybody win! 07:55  |  Uzi 30/09/07
  42.   @28, otto rand you are idiot and please don´t give your 07:57  |  vladimir 30/09/07
  43.   Olmert`s sukkah 08:21  |  akiva (zionist) 30/09/07
  44.   e.m 08:23  |  akiva (zionist) 30/09/07
  45.   Natallie Durson, I delight in avoiding your posts! 08:26  |  akiva (zionist) 30/09/07
  46.   Linda, yes. They are planning to kill Israel. It will boomerang. 08:37  |  Pavel 30/09/07
  47.   PA hardens demands ahead of peace summit 09:00  |  Martin List,M.D. 30/09/07
  48.   is Abbas really different from Hanieh??? 09:18  |  michel 30/09/07
  49.   PA hardens demands..... 09:19  |  Esther 30/09/07
  50.   The Saudi Plan models peace with ALL Arab states 09:21  |  Ivar 30/09/07
  51.   the conference is headed for failure 09:25  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 30/09/07
  52.   What right does Israel have to exist... 09:36  |  Taimur 30/09/07
  53.   Making impossible demands 09:37  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 30/09/07
  54.   Dear Lakshmi 09:38  |  Israeli 30/09/07
  55.   the game for no deal is being played out now 09:43  |  victor hardman 30/09/07
  56.   The Right-Wing Wackos Are In Full Voice 09:47  |  chet 30/09/07
  57.   The more you give to Arabs.... 09:50  |  Pathfinder 30/09/07
  58.   DON`T PUSH IT ABBAS, OR.. 09:56  |  indrajaya 30/09/07
  59.   ARABS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN KNOWN FOR TAKING THE WRONG DECISIONS 10:01  |  Robert 30/09/07
  60.   Israel wants platitudes and vanilla declarations from the summit 10:08  |  Clickfool 30/09/07
  61.   Idiotic Israelis will give up on everything 10:08  |  Absolute Sweden 30/09/07
  62.   negotiations with ABBAS 10:20  |  Roland Nilsson 30/09/07
  63.   Just thinking about this gives me a headache! 10:22  |  Nechama 30/09/07
  64.   Return to 1967 in return for no Palestinian return 10:23  |  Ivar 30/09/07
  65.   Israel`s `gesture` for Ramadan. How sweet! 10:24  |  Nechama 30/09/07
  66.   bashar us #3 10:26  |  Nechama 30/09/07
  67.   Ivar 10:33  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 30/09/07
  68.   revealed for the first time 10:35  |  akiva (zionist) 30/09/07
  69.   why lakshmi hates israel 10:36  |  dumdumwallah 30/09/07
  70.   Israel sees the NSU as a "diplomatic elite unit" 10:38  |  akiva (zionist) 30/09/07
  71.   FAKE Clickfool #46 10:42  |  Clickfool 30/09/07
  72.   lakshmi`s purpose according to her posts 10:44  |  pani 30/09/07
  73.   Ivar 10:45  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 30/09/07
  74.   akshmi few palestinians are as badly off as 90% of indians 10:48  |  babrimosque 30/09/07
  75.   Olmert & Livni will SELL Israel to remain in POWER 10:48  |  Dr. Dave 30/09/07
  76.   lakshmi it would be appropriate for advanced nations 10:51  |  sonia gandhi