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AAI in the News

Abbas asks White House for help in Mideast peace talks

By Matthew Lee (AP)
Boston Globe
Posted on Thursday April 24, 2008

WASHINGTON – President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority appealed to the Bush administration yesterday for more support in peace talks with Israel, which have bogged down five months after both sides pledged to reach a deal by January.

In a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ahead of talks with President Bush today, Abbas said time was running out if the target laid out at the Annapolis Conference in November was to be met, and more pressure must be exerted on Israel to stop the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

“The most important obstacle to peace is the continuation of settlement activity,” Abbas said last night at a dinner hosted by the Arab-American Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

Separately, Jordan’s King Abdullah II told Bush at a breakfast meeting that negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis should be based on “clear grounds and fixed timetables” as the United States pushes for an agreement.

In another development yesterday, a Syrian Cabinet minister said Israel has passed a message to Syria saying it is prepared to return the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace treaty. Israeli officials declined to comment, but the message could be a sign of progress in back-channel contacts between the two nations.

The Washington meetings began two days of Mideast diplomacy by the Bush administration. They are a prelude to next month’s trip by Bush to the Middle East for the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel. He is also expected to visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

At the dinner, Abbas said he would try to press leaders of the militant Hamas movement to stop firing rockets into Israel. But he called for the lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has been in place since Hamas took power last June, and vowed to continue paying the salaries of Palestinian government workers in Gaza. “They deserve all the help they can get,” he said. “They deserve the siege to be lifted.”

The administration had been holding out hope it could arrange a peace summit during Bush’s visit to the Mideast, perhaps at Sharm el-Sheik, where Bush is now set to see President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The idea was to have Arab leaders endorse an interim statement showing some progress.

But there are deep misgivings about such a meeting among both Arabs and the Israelis, given the slow pace of talks, officials said.

Abbas wants a peace agreement by January with timetables and specifics leading to the creation of a Palestinian state and not just a “declaration of principles,” as suggested by Israel officials.

Syria’s emigrant affairs minister, Buthaina Shaaban, said yesterday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel sent a message to President Bashar Assad of Syria.

The message said Olmert “is ready for peace with Syria based on international conditions and the full return of the Golan Heights,” Shaaban said.

Olmert told Israeli newspapers last week that the two nations had exchanged messages clarifying what each would expect from a peace deal. Assad told officials of Syria’s ruling Ba’ath Party that the exchange explored the possibility of resuming peace talks.