US PEACE EFFORT HAVE FAILED: ABBAS
Paris, 23 Rabiul Akhir 1435/23 February 2014 (MINA) – The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas said that US attempts to forge an agreement on a framework for peace talks with Israel had so far failed but that the efforts are “extremely serious.”
Speaking in Paris after talks this week with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Abbas told journalists: “So far the Americans have not been able to put these ideas into a framework, even if the efforts are extremely serious.”
After meeting with Abbas, French President Francois Hollande said he had underlined the need “to reach an agreed framework for negotiations in a timely manner,” ALRAY, Palestinian Media Agency reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).
Abbas met with Kerry twice in Paris this week in what a US official described as “constructive” talks.The top US diplomat has spent months trying to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree on a framework to guide talks towards a full peace treaty, but the negotiations have shown little sign of progress, with each side blaming the other.
A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday that ideas proposed by Kerry in Paris could not be accepted “as the basis for a framework accord … as they do not take into account the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
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John Kerry, US secretary of state in his latest effort to push forward peace talks, now fixated on security arrangements for a future Palestinian state.
The US has drafted a team of defence experts headed by John Allen, a retired Marine Corps general, to propose ideas to secure the future Palestinian border with Jordan, which Israel fears could become a porous source of arms and terror operatives.
Mr Kerry, during his most recent trip to the region said that about 160 people had contributed to Gen Allen’s concept, and that the US would provide technology aimed at allaying regional security concerns. “The commitment of the US to Israel’s security is ironclad,” he said.
Mr Kerry has asked Israeli and Palestinian negotiators not to comment on the talks which are due to end next April, but said they were making progress. This contrasted with many recent unsourced reports in Israeli and Palestinian media citing unnamed officials who claimed the negotiations were going badly.
Al-Ayyam, the Ramallah-based daily, reported earlier this week that Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, had rejected a US proposal for an Israeli military presence to be maintained in the Jordan valley for 10 years after the signing of a peace accord. (T/P04/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
