http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148742#.TpcqB3JiK-U
Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat denied on Thursday that PA and Israeli representatives would meet in Jordan to discuss restarting peace talks on January 23.
"It was said that there are meetings and calls for meetings in Jordan between an Israeli and a Palestinian delegation with the Quartet. This talk is not true. We did not receive anything from them," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio on Thursday.
"My view is that anyone who tries to get around the point that Israel must halt settlement and accept the '67 borders is only wasting their time," Erekat added.
The Quartet for Middle East Peace - the European Union, Russia, United States, and United Nations - last week announced January 23 as the date for the meeting without consulting officials in Jerusalem or Ramallah.
Quartet officials previously submitted a plan wherein Israeli and PA officials would resume talks without preconditions with the aim of concluding a final status agreement by December 2012.
The proposal came on the heels of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas' unilateral bid for statehood at the United Nations in September, which faces a promised negative recommendation from the United States in the Security Council.
To be approved and passed to the General Assembly for a vote Abbas' application for UN recognition and membership would have to win 9-votes in the 15-member Security Council including positive recommendations from all five permanent members.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton last week reaffirmed US opposition to Abbas' UN application was a dead letter saying "its going nowhere."
Clinton also reiterated President Barack Obama's position, "the road to peace lies through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York."
But Abbas, currently in Paris for consultations with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose nation is also a permanent member of the Security Council, made it plain the Quartet plan holds no interest for him.
"There will be no negotiations for the sake of negotiations," he said.
Israel has accepted the Quartet plan saying it is ready to resume talks without preconditions with both sides raising reservations at the negotiating table, and is willing to attend the January 23 meeting.
At the same time, Israel has rejected Abbas' demand that Israel suspend construction in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem as a precondition for talks saying it is merely a fait accompli to forestall talks.
A previous 10-month building freeze by Israel aimed at satisfying identical PA demands and drawing officials in Ramallah to the table was rebuffed and met with mounting preconditions that ended in Abbas' bid.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148723#.TpYo3HJiK-U
Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday rebuffed Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas who had travelled to Bogotá to secure support of his unilateral statehood bid at the United Nations.
"We want the Palestinian state to exist. But this can only come as the result of a (UN) vote or resolution. It must be the product of negotiations (between Israelis and Palestinians) because this is the only way to achieve peace," Santos said after meeting Abbas in Bogota.
Santos also offered to provide Colombian mediation of the crisis, noting that he had discussed the proposal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Colombia is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, where Abbas needs at least nine votes out of 15 - including positive recommendations from all five permanent members - for his statehood application to be accepted by the world body.
Abbas, in turn, said the PLO was "ready to return immediately to the negotiating table," but reiterated his precondition that Israel first freeze construction in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem.
Abbas has thrown up preconditions as a fait acommpli to forestall negotiations for almost two years, refusing to come to the table, even when Israel did freeze construction for 10-months to meet his demands. Instead, Abbas added additional preconditions.
PLO officials have, in addition to Abbas' present demand, said Israel must also recognize the pre-1967 borders as a basis of negotiations before talks can begin.
Israel, which has accepted terms laid down by the Quartet for Middle East Peace - the European Union, Russia, United States, and United Nations - to resume talks without preconditions says the two sides should address their reservations at the negotiating table.
Abbas is due to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday in Paris to discuss his now-stalled statehood bid at the UN. France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
But some observers say – with a negative recommendation in the Security Council promised by the United States, itself a permanent member of the council – that Abbas' concerted media blitz and world tour in lieu of negotiations amounts to tilting at windmills.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148660#.TpN593JiK-U
The PLO reiterated Monday that Quartet for Middle East Peace spokesman Tony Blair was "unwelcome" in enclaves it administers via the Palestinian Authority.
“Blair is unwelcome because he violated his mission as neutral envoy of an international committee that aims at achieving just peace in the region,” a PLO statement read.
The Quartet appointed Blair, Britain’s former prime minister, as its envoy in 2007. Since then he has focused his energies on "easing the occupation" and echoed numerous sentiments held by officials in Ramallah, leading many Israelis to conclude he is biased in the PAs favor.
Nonetheless, PLO’s officials maintain Blair “has become a spokesman for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, and this was clear when he tried to form the Quartet’s last statement which adopted the Israeli demands at the expense of the Palestinian just and legitimate ones.”
PLO officials have been near-histrionic over the Quartet's demand the PA return to the negotiating table without preconditions with the aim of reaching a final status agreement by December 2012, and have called for Blair's ouster as a result.
The Quartet, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, said it wanted to see comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, and substantial progress within six months.
The Quartet’s statement came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submitted a formal application to the UN Security Council for the unilateral recognition of a PA state based on pre-1967 lines with Jerusalem as its capital outside the bilateral Oslo framework.
Israel and the United States opposed the statehood proposal, saying a meaningful resolution to the crisis could only be reached with the consent of the two parties.
Israeli officials maintain Abbas bid excludes Israel from discussions of its own future and prejudices any future talks in favor of Ramallah's maximalist demands, which are seen in Jerusalem as a death-sentence for the Jewish state.
Riad Al-Malki, the Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister, said at the the Quartet’s proposal “isn’t sufficient because it does not call for a settlement freeze and an Israeli forces withdrawal to the 1967 lines.”
On Sunday, the Quartet met in Burssels and resolved to invite diplomats from Jerusalem and Ramallah to the city to discuss a resumption of negotiations. Israel has already agreed to the Quartet's stated basis for resuming talks.
Hanan Ashrawi, member of PLO’s Executive Committee, told the Voice of Palestine Radio the Quartet’s call “is an attempt to get out of the crisis the negotiations has been in for a year.”
“The Palestinians would rebuff going ahead on the previous peace talks track and repeat the same experience of failure amid the current diplomatic activities, mainly the Palestinian bid to the UN Security Council for a statehood,” Ashrawi said.
Ramallah demands Israel halt construction in Judea, Samaria and east Jerusalem before resuming talks with some officials demanding Israel agree to pre-1967 lines as a basis for negotiations before talks can resume.
Jerusalem, however, says its previous 10-month building freeze aimed at bringing PA officials back to the table was rebuffed and only met with previous preconditions.
If officials in Ramallah are serious, they say, negotiations can resume without precondition with reservations being discussed at the negotiating table.
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