In the face of Arab criticism of the administration’s recalibrated Middle Eastern peace tack, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday moderated her praise for Israel’s offer to restrain building settlements in Palestinian areas.
While Israel was moving in the right direction in its offer to restrict but not stop the settlements, Clinton said its offer “falls far short” of US expectations. She repeated, however, that it reflected a potentially important step forward for Middle East peace.
Clinton said her earlier praise of Israel’s offer, during a stop in Jerusalem, had been intended as “positive reinforcement.” But that comment drew widespread criticism from Arab countries, which interpreted it as a softening of the US position on settlements.
PHOTO: AFP
In a sign of US eagerness to calm Arab concerns about the US position on settlements, Clinton extending her trip by one day to fly to Cairo to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today, her staff announced. She had been scheduled to return to Washington yesterday.
Clinton’s comments in Jerusalem on Saturday appeared to reflect a realization within US President Barack Obama’s administration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will not accept a full-scale settlement freeze and that a partial halt may be the best lesser option. Her appeal on Saturday seemed designed to make the Israeli position more palatable to the Palestinians and Arab states.
During a photo-taking session on Monday with her Moroccan counterpart, Clinton was asked by a reporter about the Arab reaction, and she responded by reading from a written statement that appeared designed to counter the skepticism about the Obama administration’s views on settlements.
“Successive American administrations of both parties have opposed Israel’s settlement policy,” she said. “That is absolutely a fact, and the Obama administration’s position on settlements is clear, unequivocal and it has not changed. As the president has said on many occasions, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”
Clinton’s tweaking of her remarks appeared to satisfy at least some of the Morocco meeting attendees.
“We have heard her say something completely different from that statement in line with previous statements, so we are happy that such a position was highlighted and brought back to the right line and right now we will see how things will go,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said. “We completely appreciate the sincere efforts made by President Barack Obama and his team to take this issue as a top priority and to try to deal with it from day one.”
Clinton also called on the Israelis to do more to improve “movement and access” for Palestinians and on Israeli security arrangements. She said, however, that Israel deserved praise for moving in the right direction.
“I will offer positive reinforcement to either of the parties when I believe they are taking steps that support the objective of reaching a two-state solution,” she said.
Meanwhile, Clinton told a forum in Marrakesh yesterday that the US would deliver on Obama’s promise of a “new start” with Muslims by offering programs on entrepreneurship, economic development and education.
The programs include a US$76 million project to help increase economic opportunities in Yemen, a US$30 million project for vulnerable young people in Jordan and an entrepreneurship summit in Washington next year to bring Muslim innovators together with US business leaders.
Clinton’s speech was billed as a follow-up to Obama’s June address in Cairo in which he promised to seek a new start in the US’ troubled relations with the Islamic world.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS