Israel is ready to negotiate the terms of Palestinian statehood, although it wants its security concerns addressed in the initial stages of indirect talks, the Israeli president said on Friday after meeting with the US Middle East envoy.
George Mitchell, US President Barack Obama’s special representative for Middle East peace, was in the region for the start of four months of indirect talks between the Israelis and Palestinians that aim to bridge vast differences between the sides on the contours of a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinians want the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories Israel captured in the 1967 War — for their state, but have said they are willing to make some minor land exchanges.
PHOTO: EPA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a reluctant latecomer to the idea of Palestinian statehood, has said he won’t give up east Jerusalem and has posed strict security conditions, including a continued Israeli presence in some areas of the West Bank.
Israeli President Shimon Peres said Israel was ready to negotiate.
“Israel seeks a historic peace agreement with the Palestinians that will result in the founding of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel,” Peres said after meeting with Mitchell.
Peres said resolving security concerns, such as rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, are of the utmost importance to Israel. Rocket attacks from Gaza have almost ceased since Israel’s military offensive in the territory more than a year ago. A small number of rockets have been fired, although splinter groups and not Hamas itself are believed to be behind the attacks.
Mitchell also held talks on Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. The Palestinian leader has agreed to participate in indirect peace talks with Israel, but has said he still requires the formal backing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee, which was expected to sign off on the negotiations when it met yesterday.
Mitchell arrived earlier last week and has already held two days of talks with Netanyahu. He was to meet again with Abbas on yesterday and today, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
He said the Palestinians want to give the negotiations a chance, but that success is mainly up to Israel.
“Now the Israeli government has a choice, either peace or settlements, and it can’t have both,” Erekat said.
The Palestinians refuse to enter into direct negotiations unless Israel halts all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state Netanyahu has agreed to a temporary slowdown in the West Bank, but refuses to announce a construction freeze in east Jerusalem.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese