Israeli and Palestinian leaders to be invited to U.S. for peace talks
Reporting from Washington and Vineyard Haven, Mass. --
World leaders are planning to invite Israeli and Palestinian officials to Washington in September to begin direct Middle East peace talks, a U.S. official confirmed Thursday.
An invitation from the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations is expected to be announced as soon as Friday, nearly two years after the last round of talks broke off.
The world leaders are suggesting early September for the first session of negotiations.
Details were still being worked out late Thursday, and though acceptance by both sides was expected, officials warned that nothing had been confirmed. Nevertheless, skepticism is high on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides and many question whether direct peace talks will achieve tangible results.
U.S. and allied officials in recent days said they had persuaded Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to join the talks. President Obama would be directly involved in the meetings, officials said.
On Friday, officials in Israel and the Palestinian territories declined to comment until after an official announcement from Washington was released. The two sides have been arguing over the proposed wording of the U.S. invitation.
The U.S. has spent months on shuttle diplomacy — special envoy George J. Mitchell has been meeting extensively with Israeli and Palestinian officials since May — in an attempt to start indirect talks, with little discernible result.
Key negotiators signaled a breakthrough in the effort to begin negotiations this week, when Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s top foreign policy official, announced in a letter to other EU officials that Abbas was on the brink of committing to talks.
Confirmation of such negotiations, first reported by the Reuters news agency Thursday, would be a relief for Obama, who has made Mideast peace talks a high foreign policy priority in his administration.
The resumption of face-to-face meetings would be a measure of political success for his administration, even if the two sides didn’t agree to discuss core issues that could relieve long-term hostilities and move the region toward a two-state solution.
As in previous talks, major issues would include the borders of a Palestinian state, Israeli security, the claims of Palestinian refugees and competing claims over Jerusalem.
Palestinians want the invitation to direct talks to include a demand that Israel continue its moratorium – set to expire Sept. 26 -- on most new housing construction in the West Bank and an assurance that talks will use pre-1967 borders as a starting point. Israel has refused to accept what it calls “preconditions,” saying such matters should be settled at the negotiating table.
The PLO Executive Council was expected to gather to discuss its position on resuming talks after the invitation is released.
“All I can say is that we are doing everything we can and we are continuing our discussions with the U.S. administration and the other members of the quartet” consisting of the U.S., Russia, Europe and U.N, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Palestinian radio Friday. A day earlier, Erekat reiterated the Palestinian Authority position that it will not return to talks unless Israel extends the West Bank construction freeze.
“President Obama is going to be the eighth consecutive American president who failed to improve the situation in the Middle East because he’s exploring the same path of establishing a Palestinian state,” said Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council, a right-leaning group that represents many of the 300,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. “It’s a futile path. It will not happen.”
Palestinians are equally dubious, warning that another round of failed peace talks could bring the end of the Palestinian Authority, which has been negotiating unsuccessfully with Israel for statehood for nearly two decades.
“Direct talks would lead to a massive failure of the Palestinian national project,” wrote jailed Hamas leader Abdul Khaleq Al-Natsheh in a letter released earlier this week, according to Palestinian news agency Maan.
In Gaza, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said after Friday prayers that the Palestinian Authority should continue to boycott direct talks, which he called a “deception” intended to “mislead public opinion.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is willing to make sacrifices for peace, but the hard-liners in his right-wing government have been reluctant to give ground to the Palestinians.
As for Abbas, it’s not clear how decisive a commitment he could make on behalf of the Palestinians from his office in the West Bank. His rivals in the militant group Hamas control the Gaza Strip, home to about 1.5 million Palestinians.
Although pessimism may shadow the resumption of Mideast peace talks, a wild card in any new meetings is the role the U.S. may assume.
Obama has signaled that his government is willing to take a more active role than the previous administration, which was more reluctant to push the Israelis.
Such a prospect has stirred hope among Palestinians, who think Obama may have more sympathy for their cause, and anxiety among the Israelis, who worry the administration may press them for concessions that threaten their security.
Even such a small step toward peace is seen among American officials as a move toward building support in the Muslim world for the U.S. and its goals, including the military campaign in Afghanistan and the effort to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
Parsons reported from Washington; Nicholas reported from Vineyard Haven, Mass.; and Sanders reported from Jerusalem.
Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.
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