By Agencies
CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers spoke out Wednesday against any talks between Israel and the Palestinians, direct or indirect, unless the US takes a firm stance on the future borders of a Palestinian state.
The Arab position, reflecting growing Palestinian frustration, is pushing the US to endorse the original 1967 borders as the baseline for negotiations between the two parties.
While the Arabs are not backing a return to negotiations at this stage, they are not advocating any alternatives yet, such as a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state.
The United States’ peace efforts suffered a major setback after Washington abandoned efforts to coax Israel to freeze Jewish settlement in areas the Palestinians want for a future state.
Last week, American officials said they would keep talking to both sides and now plan to discuss the so-called core issues of the conflict, including the borders of a Palestinian state and security arrangements, separately with Israelis and Palestinians.
“The negotiation track between the Palestinians and Israelis is futile. There is no return to talks. Any resumption is conditioned on a serious offer that ensures the end to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the peace process references,” a final statement from the Arab ministers, read by Arab League chief Amr Moussa, said.
The Arab League ministerial follow-up committee on the peace process “sees that the direction of talks has become ineffective and it has decided against the resumption of negotiations,” Moussa said.
The ministers also decided “to bring up the issue of Israeli settlements again to the Security Council,” wanting the UN body to adopt a resolution “that confirms … the illegal nature of this activity and that would oblige Israel to stop it.”
They also called on the United States, which has vetoed resolutions against Israel in the past, not to obstruct such a move.
Moussa said Arab ambassadors at the United Nations were told “to demand an emergency meeting of the Security Council.”
But in Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said it was “unclear how the Arab League thinks that anything can move without any kind of talks.”
“The only way to advance on the peace track is through dialogue, and if you reject dialogue, you reject peace, Palmor said.
The Palestinians say they want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. They say they are willing to swap 1.9 percent of the land to enable Israel to keep some of the settlements.
The ministers said the failure of Washington to force Israel to stop settlement building on territories occupied in 1967 “demands that the American administration declares clearly the two states’ borders be based on the 1967 borders.”
Israel has not agreed to the idea of the 1967 as a baseline. Some parties in Israel’s coalition government oppose any land concession, while others are ready to make them, but on a lesser scale than what the Palestinians would consider acceptable.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani said the Arabs are skeptical the US will be able to pressure Israel on core issues if it failed to force a settlement freeze, saying during his opening statement that the Arabs “can’t provide support for the return to talks, whether direct or indirect, under these circumstances.”
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has relied on an Arab League endorsement to give himself political coverage before engaging first in indirect and then direct talks with the Israelis.
“The Israeli position is now becoming clear that it attempts to divert the negotiation track into what the Israeli government wants, and to render the peace everyone is talking about into a peace with an Israeli hue without any consideration for the Palestinian and Arab rights,” said Sheikh Hamad.
But the Qatari minister said Arabs and the Palestinians at this stage are unable to pursue any other solutions but the peace talks. “At least this time, we will stop the talks until the Americans can come up with something new.”
The US Mideast envoy returned to the region on Monday, seeking to revive the troubled peace efforts and met with the two sides, and with Egypt’s president and the secretary general of the Arab League.
Earlier on Wednesday, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said in Cairo that, “in the days ahead, our discussions with both sides will be substantive, two-way conversations with an eye towards making real progress in the next few months on the key questions of an eventual framework agreement.”
The two sides need to “to rebuild confidence, demonstrate their seriousness and hopefully find enough common ground on which to eventually relaunch direct negotiations,” he said after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Moussa said after meeting Mitchell that he hoped Washington would succeed but that Israel stood in its way.
“We must reach results. We should not wait for an Israeli change in policy. We should not continue just hoping or running after a carrot,” Moussa told a news conference with Mitchell.
“President (Barack) Obama – we want him to succeed,” he said, blaming Israel for the stalemate.
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said as the meeting was under way that Washington continues “to look for ongoing support by regional players on our joint efforts.”
US Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton has said she wants to push the parties to address “core issues” that have repeatedly scuttled two decades of peace efforts: the final borders between Israel and a future Palestine, the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of Israel’s creation in 1948, and resolving the disputing claims to east Jerusalem, home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.
But the administration has said little on how it will pursue these goals.
