Abbas Leaves Washington Empty Handed: Talks Failed in Achieving Any Results

Saturday April 26, 2008 06:32 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agenices

Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said that his talks with the US President, George Bush, and US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, have failed in achieving any positive results.

Abbas stated that the talks failed to address the core issues of an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders and a halt of Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The president added that he will be heading back to the Palestinians territories “with no, or little to show”.

Israeli Ynetnews reported that Abbas told the Associated Press that it does not seem that a peace deal would be achieved with Israel this year.

He added that one of the biggest obstacles in front of peace talks is the issue of Israel’s ongoing expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

“We demanded the US Administration to implement the first phase of the Road Map Peace Plan which talks about halting settlement expansion”, Abbas stated, “This issue is the biggest obstacle that obstructs peace talks”.

Close aides to Abbas said that he was upset on Thursday after he had lunch with the US Secretary Of State. Both were discussing the shape of the peace deal, but Rice said nothing about the Palestinian demand of creating an independent Palestinians State”.

Abbas also said that the US Administration did not offer any new proposals to advance the peace process.

So far, Israel refuses to hold talks on the final borders of the Palestinian State, Jerusalem and the Right of Return of the Palestinian Refugees. Yet, Israeli leaders always said that Jerusalem will always be the “united capital of Israel”, and they continue to reject talks on the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, and refuse to talk on border issues.

It is worth mentioning that Israel is the only sovereign state that does not have set borders as it continues to expand its settlement blocks in the West Bank, and continues to construct the illegal annexation wall in order to create its own version of a peace deal.

On Thursday, chief Palestinian Negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erekat, said that Abbas brought the Palestinian objections to Bush, but the latter did not respond directly, the Ynetnews reported. Abbas was informing Bush of the Palestinian objections on the ongoing Israeli settlement expansion.

The Ynetnews quoted Erekat as saying that “Bush told Abbas…I am focusing on the bigger scope”.

Hamas advises Abbas to declare failure of settlement, return to internal dialog

[ 26/04/2008 - 03:15 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Hamas Movement on Saturday urged PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to officially declare the failure of the settlement talks with Israeli occupation and to return to internal, national dialogue.

Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said in a press release that Abbas's visit to Washington had ended in complete failure as affirmed by Abbas himself in a statement to the AP.

Such failure proved that American president George Bush's allegation of supporting the creation of a Palestinian state before end of his term in office by the end of 2008 was a sheer lie and deception.

Hamas calls on Abbas to return to talks with Palestinian forces to build a solid internal front in face of Israeli aggression, Abu Zuhri concluded.

For his part, Abbas told Reuters in another interview before leaving Washington that "necessary concessions" should be made on the part of both Israel and the Palestinians in order to reach what he called a "deal" regarding the border, refugees and Jerusalem issues.

He acknowledged that a "gap" existed between positions of both parties over "core issues", but he claimed that an agreement was possible if both offered "necessary concessions" and Israel adopted a "realistic stand".

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