US President Barack Obama held his first summit with his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres on Tuesday, as the US urged Israel to accept a two-state solution amid a new US push for Middle East peace.
Obama, who has made the Middle East one of the top priorities of his administration, has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Washington for talks in the coming weeks.
And in some of the most forceful language yet by the new administration, Vice President Joe Biden laid out on Tuesday what Washington expected from its partners in the search for an elusive peace deal.
“Israel’s security is non-negotiable. Period,” Biden told the annual conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself the most influential foreign policy lobby in Washington.
“But Israel has to work toward a two-state solution,” Biden told the 6,500 delegates.
“You’re not going to like my saying this but [do] not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement,” Biden told the audience, which nonetheless applauded him.
The US vice president also urged Arab states to begin moving toward ending Israel’s isolation.
“Now is the time for Arab states to make meaningful gestures to show the Israeli leadership and the people the promise of ending Israel’s isolation in the region is real and genuine,” Biden said.
Tuesday’s White House talks were the first summit between the close allies since Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Israel’s prime minister and Obama took over in January as US president.
Netanyahu has so far refused to publicly endorse the creation of a Palestinian state and has insisted on focusing efforts on strengthening the West Bank economy before engaging in negotiations on a final status agreement.
Peres said after the talks that Netanyahu had signed up to the commitments of the US-backed “road-map” when asked by reporters about the new Israeli administration’s failure to so far endorse a two-state solution.
“Mr Netanyahu said he will abide by the commitments of the previous government,” Peres said after the closed-door meeting.
“The previous government accepted the road map — in the road map you will find the attitude to the two state solution,” he said.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
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