The US launched a frantic bid to avert the collapse of Middle East talks ahead of a deadline yesterday, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel must choose between settlements and peace.
Abbas, who has threatened to quit US-organized negotiations unless Israel extends a moratorium on housing for settlers in the occupied territories, condemned “the mentality of expansion and domination” that he said controls Israel’s policies.
Abbas met US Middle East envoy George Mitchell at a New York hotel before talks with other Arab leaders and then leaving the US without any sign of a deal.
The US administration also held talks with Israeli leaders, according to US officials.
“We are doing everything we can to keep the parties in direct talks,” US Department of State spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
Israel’s freeze on building new settlements in the West Bank expired at midnight yesterday. The Israeli government has rejected international calls to completely halt settlement construction.
A Palestinian spokesman said the US had vowed to keep up the talks until the last moment.
Abbas met US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York on Friday night. Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Molcho, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s point man on the peace talks, were also in New York to aid compromise efforts, Israeli radio reported.
A senior Israeli official said on Friday that “there cannot be zero construction” in the West Bank. The official said Israel was willing to cut a compromise deal.
However, Abbas has rejected any compromise that does not guarantee a “complete halt” to settlement activity including in Jerusalem, a top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told reporters.
In a speech to the UN General Assembly, the Palestinian leader praised US President Barack Obama’s efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians together and declared his “complete readiness to cooperate with the American efforts for the success of the political process.”
He said Palestinians face “dangerous problems that continue to push them into the corner of violence and conflict, wasting chance after chance to seriously address the issues faced by the people of the region and to attain comprehensive and genuine solutions.
“This is the result of the mentality of expansion and domination, which still controls the ideology and policies of Israel,” Abbas said.
Abbas added that Palestinians still want peace and declared: “Our wounded hands are still able to carry the olive branch from the rubble of the trees that the occupation uproots every day.”
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman echoed a toughening US line toward the two sides.
“We are urging Israel to extend the moratorium,” Feltman said. “We also are making clear to the Palestinians we do not believe that it is in their interest to walk out of the talks.”
The international community considers Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, to be illegal.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS