WEST BANK: U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in effort to revive peace talks

Record ID: 563053

  • Title: WEST BANK: U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in effort to revive peace talks
  • Date: 18th July 2010
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JULY 17, 2010) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** U.S. MIDDLE EAST PEACE ENVOY GEORGE MITCHELL SHAKING HANDS WITH PALESTINIAN CHIEF NEGOTIATOR SAEB EREKAT AT ENTRANCE TO PRESIDENTIAL COMPOUND MITCHELL SITTING WITH PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS MITCHELL SPEAKING DELEGATION AT MEETING ABBAS TALKING TO MITCHELL MEETING IN PROGRESS MITCHELL ADDRESSING REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. MIDDLE EAST PEACE ENVOY, GEORGE MITCHELL, SAYING: "We recognise the difficulties and complexities involved in trying to realise this vision (of a peace agreement). But we are determined to continue our efforts. We are heartened by the discussions that we've had here today and in the past several days and I will now visit several other countries in the region for discussions with leaders in several of the neighbouring countries sand our efforts will continue in that regard." CAMERA OPERATOR MITCHELL GETTING INTO VEHICLE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YASSER ABED RABBO, TOP ADVISOR TO PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT, SAYING: "There is no clear conclusion regarding the issues related to moving to direct talks. There are a number of political issues and the issue of facts on the ground, especially in Jerusalem. These issues in general and especially the issue of Jerusalem, require further clarification and more discussions between us and the Americans." CAMERA OPERATOR (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YASSER ABED RABBO, TOP ADVISOR TO PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT, SAYING: "There will be an Arab group leadership meeting, as well as a Palestinian central committee meeting at the start of the coming month. In light of all these meetings and based on the clarifications that we may receive from the American side at a later stage, we will make the right decision." VIEW OF PRESIDENTIAL COMPOUND
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2010 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA9TO9MI2LPQS6EVXGAAN86FFTD
  • Story Text: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell in the latest round of indirect negotiations with Israel as Abbas indicates in a newspaper interview that Israel must agree to a third-party border force for a future Palestinian state before direct negotiations begin.
    President Barack Obama's envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell met on Saturday (July 17) with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for another round of indirect peace talks aimed at pushing forward direct negotiations with Israel.
    Mitchell, who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday (July 16), is mediating talks that have been under way for two months.
    "We recognise the difficulties and complexities involved in trying to realise this vision (of a peace agreement). But we are determined to continue our efforts. We are heartened by the discussions that we've had here today and in the past several days and I will now visit several other countries in the region for discussions with leaders in several of the neighbouring countries sand our efforts will continue in that regard," Mitchell told reporters after the meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    The indirect talks are about halfway through their agreed four-month lifetime. They are set to conclude in September, around the same time as a partial freeze that Netanyahu ordered in November on Israeli settlement building on occupied West Bank territory comes to an end.
    Netanyahu says he is ready to begin direct talks with Abbas right away. But the Palestinian president is wary of talking to an Israeli leader he believes is not willing to make an offer the Palestinians could accept.
    Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top adviser to Abbas, said he did not expect to move to direct talks in the coming weeks.
    "There is no clear conclusion regarding the issues related to moving to direct talks. There are a number of political issues and the issue of facts on the ground, especially in Jerusalem. These issues, especially the issue of Jerusalem, require further clarification and more discussions between us and the Americans," Abed Rabbo said following Abbas and Mitchell's meeting.
    "There will be an Arab group leadership meeting, as well as a Palestinian central committee meeting at the start of the coming month. In light of all these meetings and based on the clarifications that we may receive from the American side at a later stage, we will make the right decision," he added.
    As the Abbas-Mitchell meeting was taking place, in a newspaper interview published on Saturday the Palestinian President made his clearest statement yet on what he wants from Israel before he agrees to move to face-to-face negotiations that Washington is pressing for.
    Speaking to the Jordanian newspaper al-Ghad Abbas said he wanted Israel to agree "in principle" to the idea that a third party take a security role in a future Palestinian state to be founded on land occupied by Israel in a 1967 war. Abbas also said Israel must also agree in principle to an equitable land swap that would compensate the Palestinians for West Bank land absorbed by Jewish settlements in any peace deal.
    The Palestinians aim to establish their state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as their capital, a demand rejected by Israeli leaders who see all of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish state.
    Abbas has repeatedly stated his rejection of any Israeli security role on the frontiers of the Palestinian state. But he has accepted the idea that NATO could play a role on the borders -- a compromise to ease Israeli concerns that the Palestinians would arm themselves heavily if they controlled their frontiers.
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