CAIRO: Middle East peace talks must include the disputed city of Jerusalem, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
“There is no doubt that moving toward a state that reflects the aspirations and the rights of the Palestinian people must include all of the issues that have been discussed and mentioned by President (Barack) Obama, and that includes Jerusalem, she said.
“We want to assure you that our goal is a real state, with a real sovereignty, she added at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Clinton extended a regional trip at the last minute to meet Mubarak after creating a storm by praising an Israeli plan to restrict settlement construction.
The Secretary of State said on Wednesday that the settlements are illegitimate but again described the plan “as unprecedented.
“Our policy on settlement activity has not changed. We do not accept the legitimacy, she said, adding that the Israeli offer, which would allow a limited expansion of the settlements, was “not what we prefer.
But “what we have received from the Israelis… is unprecedented, she said. “It’s a positive movement… just like the Palestinians made progress on security, she said.
The settlements in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 war with its Arab neighbors, are home to nearly 500,000 Israelis and are considered illegal by the international community.
Arab officials accused the Obama administration of reneging on its call earlier this year for a complete end to settlement building and said Clinton’s clarifications did not go far enough.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who had said Cairo wanted Clinton to clarify her remarks on the settlements in her visit, described his and Mubarak’s meetings with her as “very useful.
“She has given specific clarifications … and we want to listen to the clarifications directly and then assess the situation, MENA quoted Aboul Gheit as saying.
Egypt wants guarantees from Washington to assure the Palestinians that the negotiations “will not be used to waste time or be used for achieving Israeli goals, he added.
He blamed Israel for stalling the talks but appeared to suggest a softening of Egypt’s stance in supporting the Palestinian refusal to resume talks in the absence of a settlement freeze.
“Israel is putting conditions to start negotiations by continuing to hold on to settlement activity, he told reporters.
“We should focus on the end of the road and not lose the issue by holding on to this or that as a precondition for negotiations, he said.
Aboul Gheit had said Clinton had asked for the meeting with Mubarak to discuss her administration’s efforts to push for Palestinian-Israeli talks, adding that the peace process was “now passing into a critical stage, the official MENA news agency reported.
On Monday, Aboul Gheit told Clinton by telephone that Egypt supported the Palestinian stance, which rejects negotiations until Israel completely halts settlement building, the agency reported.
Cairo has long been a key player in international efforts to bring about an end to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Clinton extended her regional trip after she was criticized for praising as “unprecedented a pledge by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit settlement growth, steps that fall far short of previous US demands for a complete halt to all settlement activity.
Clinton had also called for a speedy resumption of peace talks that were suspended during the Gaza war over the new year, despite the Palestinian insistence that must Israel freeze settlement activity first.
She later clarified her comments to say that Washington still considers the settlements to be illegal and acknowledged she could have spoken more clearly.
“I think President [Barack] Obama was absolutely clear. He wanted a halt to all settlement activity, she said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television.
“Perhaps those of us who work with him and for him could have been clearer in communicating that that is his policy, she said.
A US State Department official denied the stopover in Cairo was for damage control.
“We always carry a sense of urgency into the Middle East, because if there’s a vacuum, there are lots of spoilers willing to take advantage of that vacuum, said another official, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.
“Clinton’s backtracking on her remarks, especially with regard to the partial freeze of settlements, is not sufficient to restart negotiations with Israel, Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Although Washington had said it did not consider a settlement freeze a precondition for the resumption of peace talks, Clinton’s comments appeared to place the onus for its effort’s success on Abbas.
Abbas, who had held peace talks with Netanyahu predecessor Ehud Olmert in the absence of a settlement freeze, cannot afford to be seen as succumbing to Israeli pressure, analysts say.
“It’s hard for him to backtrack and give Hamas another card, for his popularity to drop domestically, said Emad Gad, an analyst with the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Abbas’ popularity dipped after he supported the delay of a UN vote last month on endorsing a report that accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the 22-day Gaza war. He went on to endorse a subsequent vote after withering criticism from Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, and his own party.
Osama Hamdan, a Beirut-based senior official with Hamas, which opposes peace talks with Israel, said Clinton’s comments showed that “hopes in Obama were misplaced.
