US REJECTS NETANYAHU'S PEACE TALKS CONDITION
US President Barack Obama and Israel PM Binyamin Netanyahu. Obama is still committed to a two-state solution
RAMALLAH: The United States rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a condition for renewing peace talks between the two sides, a report said yesterday.The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted the US State Department as saying in a press statement, during special envoy George Mitchell’s visits over the weekend to Ramallah and Cairo, that Netanyahu’s demand is unacceptable to the US and that the Palestinians need not recognize Israel as Jewish state before talks.
The State Department added that the US would continue to promote a two-state solution.The demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people was raised for the first time about 18 months ago in talks between Israel and the US ahead of the Annapolis Conference.
Then-Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni demanded that the conference’s closing statement mention a nation-state solution, a formulation meant to neutralize a Palestinian demand for refugees’ right of return.
However, the Bush administration accepted the Palestinian objection that the issue should be subject to negotiation.
Courtesy: Arab News
US PUSHES 2-STATE SOLUTION TO ISRAELIS
JERUSALEM: US Mideast envoy George Mitchell pressed the two-state solution on Thursday to sceptical officials in Israel, where hawkish new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a Palestinian state."US policy focuses on the two-state solution," Mitchell told reporters after holding talks in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has refused to endorse the US-sponsored Annapolis peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
In response, Lieberman said that "the peace process has reached a dead end" and that "the new (Israeli) government will have to formulate new ideas and approaches," according to a statement from his office.
"The traditional approach has so far led to no solutions or results," Lieberman said.
It marked the latest comments that could set Israel on a collision course with its most important ally, as Washington insists on the principle of a Palestinian state and Netanyahu refuses to endorse the plan.Mitchell flew into Israel late Wednesday in his first trip to the region since Netanyahu assumed his post at the head of a largely right-wing cabinet that has sparked concern over the fate of troubled peace talks.
"In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we believe that the two-state solution, two states living side by side in peace, is the best and the only way to resolve this conflict," Mitchell said in Morocco on Tuesday.
Courtesy: Channelnewsasia.com
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
