CAIRO- Jafra – Egyptian Foreign Minister Hussam Zaki, announced, today, that his country will host the second round of direct negotiations in Sharm Al-Sheikh, on September 14, 2010.
Zaki added that the negotiations will include President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli PM Netanyahu, in participation of U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
WASHINGTON- Jafra – In an interview with Amira Hanania Rishmawi of Palestine TV and Udi Segal of Israel Channel 2, U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton affirmed that the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu understands and accepts the importance of achieving a two-state solution. “He publicly committed to that, something he had not done before, and he negotiated with the Palestinians in the past,” she said, “he and President Abbas know each other. They have, in my presence, been very clear that they want to work extremely hard to get to a final agreement.”
She said, that the United States believes very strongly, and we are totally committed to working with and supporting the efforts of the Israeli and Palestinian leadership and people to achieve a viable Palestinian state and a secure Israel living side by side. That has been a personal commitment of mine going back many years, and I believe first and foremost it is in the interests of the people of Israel and of the Palestinians, and particularly of the children.
“But it is also an interest of the United States. We strongly support the security and the future of Israel and we strongly support the aspirations of the Palestinian people. The only way, in our opinion, in the 21stcentury, that you can have the kind of security and peace that gives you a chance for the future that each of your people deserve is through a settlement of all of the outstanding issues and an end to the conflict,” she told the journalists.
Regarding the skepticism and suspicion in the minds and hearts of people in the region, she said that time is not on the side of either Israeli or Palestinian aspirations for security, peace, and a state. She added that it is very difficult, and that it takes courage to accept that, because it is a bit of a leap of faith. That’s why I was very impressed that both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas came here despite the skepticism.
“We’re well aware that there are issues that have to be dealt with, such as the one you referred to, at the end of the month. I’m not going to get into their discussions, because that really is at the core of their being able to make some tough decisions, being able to have the confidence that they can have sensitive discussions without me or anybody else talking about them. But I am absolutely convinced that these two men, for different reasons, maybe the two can actually do this,” she emphasized.
However, she said: “I really am convinced that we have obstacles, we have some looming challenges in terms of time. But I believe that both men came with the best of intentions. And now, we have to work hard to overcome those obstacles.”
Responding to a question on what she thinks of President Abbas having said clearly that if settlement freeze does not continue, there will be a halt in negotiation, she said: “I think part of what we are doing here is creating an atmosphere that is conducive to a final agreement that rests on tough decisions. And the parties know that the goal here is to make the decisions within a framework agreement on all the core issues, all the difficult core issues. And clearly, territory, settlements, borders, security, those are the hardest of the core issues in my opinion.”
“They have to – and absolutely, Jerusalem, refugees, water, I mean, there’s a whole list of the hard internal core decisions. And I think that dealing with all of them – not in a piecemeal way, but in a comprehensive way, because each side is going to have to make concessions, each side is going to have to make tradeoffs. I’ve never been in a negotiation where one side got everything, because that’s not what happens in negotiations. So I understand the positions of both leaders and I think they are sincere about trying to work to get to a resolution of the outstanding problems, including the one that is looming at the end of the month,” she also said.
She went on to say that the Arab Peace Initiative that was led by the Saudis and by King Abdullah, which said, “Here is an outline for how we would like to have peace with Israel,” has been embraced by Arab and Muslim countries, as you know. That had nothing to do with Iran. That was an expression of the recognition by Arab leaders that this conflict needs to be resolved, and it needs to finally result in a two-state solution, because there’s so much to be gained in the region, turning the attention to what could be done together on all these difficult issues that are looming over the region, like water and dealing with terrorism and the like.
Yet, the Secretary of State acknowledged having so many problems. She said: Let’s recognize that we have a lot of problems we have to deal with. My goal has been to try to tackle each problem and to say, “What can we do to make progress?” There are connections, but on their own, getting to a two-state solution is so much in the interests of the entire region.
Regarding the fact that Israel has maintained more than 500 checkpoints that seriously hinder the freedom of movement in the West Bank, Secretary Clinton said: That is very much on our mind and it’s very much on the minds of both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership. We are well aware that improving the daily lives of Palestinians, which has been going on for a few years now – we think that President Abbas, Prime Minister Fayyad, other leaders – but mostly citizens themselves, mostly Palestinians who have really, in the West Bank, been able to do more on their own behalf – are demonstrating, in ways we could not say, the effects, the positive effects of peace. So, the checkpoints, the roadblocks, all of the daily challenges that we know affect the Palestinians are certainly on the agenda.
Tony Blair, who you know represents the Quartet, which has played an important role in keeping the world’s attention focused on the need for these negotiations, will be working even more with the – persistently and we hope effectively with both Israel and the Palestinian leadership to try to ease as many of those problems as possible while the negotiations are going, she continued on to say, I think the political negotiations need to be matched with changes on the ground and confidence-building and interactions between Israelis and Palestinians. You both know the problems that we face in any society where there is a really small number of people who are committed to terror and violence – it sends all kinds of messages of fear into people who themselves are just wanting to live their lives. So we want to increase freedom of access, we want to increase opportunities in the West Bank, while at the same time, we’re pursuing the political track.
Clinton had two messages to the international community: “First, on the Palestinian Authority, I want to publicly commend the work that has been done by the Palestinian Authority. The advances in security are recognized by all of us. The Palestinian security forces have gained a good and well-deserved reputation for their work in the West Bank. I want to commend the changes in financial management and accountability. And the United States, as you, I’m sure, know has increased dramatically our direct support for the Palestinian Authority. And I have encouraged and urged all the donors to do that and more. Last year was a good year. We got a very robust amount of contributions. This year, we are upping our request to all of the donors to support the peace process by supporting the Palestinian Authority.
“And the second message is really to the Palestinian people themselves. I was in Ramallah last year and I met with a group of young Palestinians. And I came away not only impressed, but so encouraged by their motivation, their ambition, their curiosity, their intelligence. And then shortly after that, I was in Israel and I met with a group of young Israelis. And as an outsider, but someone who has long been devoted to Israel and long been committed to a Palestinian state, I see the potential in this next generation,” She emphasized.
VIENNA- jafra – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is “very much encouraged” that direct peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders have been launched today and called for those talks to tackle core issues so that a lasting peace can be reached in the Middle East.
President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began talks Thursday in Washington D.C. under the auspices of the Quartet, the Middle East diplomatic grouping comprising the United Nations as well as the United States, the European Union and Russia.
The talks follow an invitation from the US Government last month and a statement from the Quartet.
Direct bilateral talks have not been held since late 2008, but indirect, or proximity, talks resumed in May this year, with the former US Senator George Mitchell shuttling between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas.
Mr. Ban told journalists in Vienna, where he is travelling as part of an official visit to Europe, that he was encouraged by the talks and sincerely hoped that the parties can do all they can to create a politically favorable atmosphere.
He said Israelis should extend the freeze on settlements beyond 26 September and that Palestinians should not resort to violence.
The Secretary-General will convene a meeting of Quartet principals in New York later this month to coincide with the annual opening of the General Debate of the General Assembly at UN Headquarters. Representatives of the League of Arab States will also be invited to that meeting.
“This is just one part of our continuing efforts to work together with the other members of the Quartet as well as Arab partners,” Mr. Ban told reporters yesterday in Liechtenstein. “We need the collective efforts to see the peace in the Middle East. Peace and stability in the Middle East has wider implications for peace and security globally.”
The UN chief stressed that the talks should substantively address the core issues of the conflict, which are “the core issues for lasting peace in the Middle East in general.”
RAMALLAH, Jafra- Dozen demonstrators wounded of tear gas inhalation launched by Israeli soldiers during the weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in west of Ramallah, on the last Friday of Ramadan.
Participants in the march called by the Popular Committee against the Wall and settlements in Bil’in, the village of Bil’in, along with dozens of peace activists, Israelis and foreigners.
The participants raised, Palestinian flags, and pictures of prisoners of popular resistance, and slogans condemning the policy of occupation, settlement, and another condemning the attack on the houses of Jerusalem, calling to halt the policy of deportation, to stop the arrests and the release of all detainees in general and prisoners of popular resistance, in particular, raise the siege on the Gaza Strip.
The demonstrators marched in the village chanting national calling for unity, and confirmed the need for a resounding Palestinian Resistance to occupation and the release of all prisoners, and chanted slogans condemning the aggression against Jerusalem, the policy of exclusion and deportation, and the siege on the Gaza Strip.
The march headed towards the Wall, where a military force of the Israeli occupation army blocked the street leading to the wall to the protestors by barbed wire and placed them on a wire red banner written in a closed military zone and prevents them from crossing into the territory. They fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and chase the demonstrators, injuring dozens of cases of suffocation.
Lawyers with the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights reported a court room victory Thursday, saying attorneys were able to secure a stay on a demolition order for a home in Beit Safafa.
Ahmad Elayan was given 30 days to demolish his home last month, or face a 24,000 shekel (US$ 6,175) fine and prison term.
Israeli municipal planning officials said Elayan’s home was built without a permit, but following the hearing of a petition in the Jerusalem District Court, a judge gave the family until 30 June 2011 to complete the necessary applications requesting retroactive building permits.
According to the Israeli Coalition Against Home Demolitions, the applications are rarely granted, but the extension will provide a one-year reprise for the family, which said it was constantly worried that a demolition would render the members homeless.
In May, two homes in Beit Safafa, a neighborhood south of Jerusalem in the Bethlehem governorate, but illegally annexed to Israel as part of “greater Jerusalem” in the 1970s, were taken over by settler families after Israeli courts ordered the eviction of their Palestinian occupants.
As four Palestinian lawmakers face deportation, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat says there is an agreement in place with the Israeli government not to detain, expel or restrict the movement of Palestinian lawmakers in Jerusalem.
In a meeting, Erekat informed European peace envoy Mark Otte of the agreement, which he said Abbas is personally following up on.
Friday prayers were held outside the Red Cross headquarters, where protesters are holding a sit-in for the second day, in solidarity with the lawmakers and with families facing demolition orders in Silwan.
One of the lawmakers faced with deportation, Muhammad Abu Tier, was detained by Israeli forces near his East Jerusalem home on Wednesday. Due to face court Thursday, the hearing was postponed until Sunday.
Israeli courts issued orders to strip Abu Teir and three others of their residency cards. The men, all elected with the Hamas Bloc to the PLC in 2006, were targeted because of their membership in the political party, which Israel considers a terrorist organization.
UN special coordinator Robert Perry expressed concern over the legality of the deportation orders, and is closely following the case, his spokesman said Thursday.
Erekat said Israeli practices of expelling officials, demolishing homes and building settlements are destroying the peace process.
A Spanish precious metals trading company bought the world’s largest gold coin for 3.27 million euros ($4.02 million), its exact material worth, from the estate of an insolvent investment firm at a rare auction in Vienna on Friday.
The 100 kg (220.5 lb) piece, one of only five Canadian $1,000,000 Maple Leaf coins the Royal Canadian Mint has ever produced, was snapped up immediately in a written bid from ORO direct, a gold trading company based in Madrid.
There were no counter offers in an auction room packed with more journalists than potential buyers. It sold for the catalog sum, the coin’s pure gold value based on Friday’s market price. This was four times its face value.
The auction was ordered by the administrator of Austrian investment group AvW Invest, which filed for insolvency in May after its owner and chief executive was arrested on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and other charges.
A man suspected of being the 11th member of a Russian spy ring alleged to have operated in the United States has been arrested and released on bail in Greek Cyprus, police said on Tuesday.
Robert Christopher Metsos, 55, was arrested at Greek Cyprus’s Larnaca airport as he tried to leave the Mediterranean island for Budapest early on Tuesday, police said.
A magistrate released Metsos on 20,000 euros ($24,410) bail to reappear in court within 30 days, when an extradition hearing will start. The hearing was scheduled for July 29.
“Based on the (Interpol) red notice we received, he is wanted for money laundering and espionage,” police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos told Reuters.
Metsos, a Canadian passport holder, has been named in U.S. court documents as one of 11 individuals operating as covert agents for Russia in the U.S. for more than a decade. The other 10 were arrested in the United States on Sunday.
Russia has described the U.S. accusations as baseless.
Greek Cyprus police had requested Metsos remain in custody until his extradition hearing, but this was rejected by court. He will be required to report to a police station once a day until his extradition hearing in a months’ time.
It is highly unusual for Greek Cyprus courts to grant bail for foreign nationals pending extradition.
Asked about the decision to free Metsos on bail, Katsounotos said: “It is an issue for the court which examined the case, and which imposed certain conditions.”
U.S. authorities say the 11 were involved in a spy ring that carried out deep-cover work in the United States to recruit political sources and gather information for the Russian government.
Metsos has been accused of receiving and making payments to the other members of the group, including getting payments during a brush-pass with a Russian government official who was affiliated with the Russian mission to the United Nations in New York, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Documents that Greek Cypriot authorities submitted to court said the Interpol red alert for Metsos was issued on June 26. It said he was thought to have laundered some $40,000.
“He has to appear at a police station once a day and has handed in his travel documents to police,” Katsounotos said.
It was not immediately clear why Metsos was in Greek Cyprus, a popular holiday destination with Europeans. He had arrived in Greek Cyprus on June 17 and had been staying alone at a hotel in Larnaca, on the east Mediterranean island’s southern coast.
Iran said on Tuesday it would soon resume nuclear talks with Turkey and Brazil — a first step back to international negotiations despite new wave of sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear work.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he would return to long-frozen talks with world powers but on certain conditions only, and not before the end of August.
His foreign minister said talks would start before then with the two countries with which it agreed a nuclear fuel swap deal in May.
Turkey and Brazil successfully brokered a deal with Iran on nuclear talks. And Turkey and Brazil voted against the resolution at the United Nations Security Council, the first time a sanctions vote on Iran has failed to pass unanimously.
“There were some contacts with the foreign ministers of the three countries (Iran, Turkey and Brazil),” Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. “A joint meeting is on the agenda and we will announce it in the coming one or two days.”
Ahmadinejad has called on the major powers to “clarify” three things before talks could resume: their attitude to Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal, their stance on commitments to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and whether they come to the table as Iran’s friend or its enemy.
Russia call for new talks
Russia, which backed the U.S.-led push for further sanctions but has since complained about the United States and the European Union issuing stricter unilateral sanctions, said on Tuesday it wanted to get back to talks with Tehran.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he wanted talks between Iran, the United States, Russia and the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency focusing on providing Iran with reactor fuel rods so it would need to escalate enrichment itself.
“In the wake of the Brazilian and Turkish initiative, Russia, along with the United States, approached the director of the IAEA and proposed we arrange a meeting of technical experts from our three countries, including Iran, to discuss the possibility of supplying fuel for the experimental reactor in Iran, so that there will be no need for Iran to enrich the uranium to a level of 20 per cent,” Lavrov said.
“I hope very much that Iran will respond positively and that this will help prevent the situation from deteriorating,” he told reporters during a visit to Israel, which often threatens the Islamic republic with an attack.
On Monday, Russia complained to the U.N. Security Council about what U.N. diplomats said was Germany’s seizure of items bound for a nuclear power plant in Iran, saying such moves were “not in line” with U.N. rules.
On June 19, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that France was ready to talk with Iran at the IAEA “without delay”, using the Tehran declaration as a basis for discussions.
“Talks as soon as possible”
Meanwhile, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that talks about Iran’s nuclear program should be held as soon as possible since time did not militate in favor of a solution.
Burak Ozugergin, spokesman for the Ministry, said at a press briefing, “there is no doubt that the agreement about uranium swap with Tehran is still valid. According to our point of view, the agreement should be considered as a confidence-building measure and put into practice. On the other hand, the remaining issues should be negotiated to find a solution.”
“If the parties fail to hold talks in this process, they will be in a worse situation next year since time does not militate in favor of a solution. Talks about Iran’s nuclear program should be held as soon as possible,” he said.
Upon a question about the UN Security Council’s decision to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Ozugergin said, “the UN Security Council made similar decisions about Iran before. We abided by those decision. We will act in line with the international law about the latest one. We wished that the UN Security Council had not made such a decision. We think that the decision would not serve efforts to find a solution to the Iranian issue.”
RAMALLAH, JAFRA)- Presidency Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeina warned, today, of the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, approving a plan to expand Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu meeting with U.S President Obama.
Abu Rdeina said in a statement: We warn of such decisions and their repercussions on the U.S efforts and its patronage to the proximity talks.
He called on the U.S administration to take prompt action to halt any procedures leading to the creation of an environment that does not contribute to the progress of the peace process. He said: “especially when this would trigger other procedures such as hoe demolition, Jerusalemite I.D denial, and expelling Palestinians from their holy city.
The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee is set to approve an unprecedented master plan that calls for the expansion of Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, a move largely based on construction on privately owned Arab property.