Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with President Bush and was returning home with little to show for his visit.
In an interview, the Palestinian leader sounded pessimistic about the prospects of achieving a deal with Israel this year, despite a U.S. push that began five months ago at a summit in Annapolis, Md.
“Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved. But we are still conducting direct work to have a solution,” Abbas said.
He said the biggest obstacle is Israel’s continued expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian-occupied territories.
“We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion,” Abbas said, expressing disappointment that the United States has not put more pressure on Israel to stop. “This is the biggest blight that stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations.”
Asked for comment, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: “President Bush is helping to push the process forward. This wasn’t a meeting in which major breakthroughs were expected.
“Ultimately, this is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to come to an agreement. Each party has more to do – and given the serious commitment of the leaders, the president remains confident that defining a state by the end of the year is still possible.”
Israel is pushing forward with building projects on disputed land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and is refusing to take down illegal settlement outposts, release Palestinian prisoners, halt military incursions, and dismantle roadblocks that disrupt daily life… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <San Francisco Chronicle>
What the Chronicle reported about this is accurate, as far as they went, but they failed to tie in how Bush and the GOP have worked behind the scenes to prevent peace by signing off on Israel’s illegal settlements in a secret deal, which I reported HERE.
