AMMAN, 22 November 2007 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that talks with Israel are still under way to try to draw up a joint document for next’ week’s Middle East meeting in the United States. “We are still discussing the document with the Israelis, and we might finish today (Wednesday) or later,” Abbas said after talks with Jordan’s King Abdallah in Amman.
“We are in last-minute negotiations, and there are problems and obstacles,” a palace statement quoted Abbas as saying. Intensive negotiations on the declaration for the international peace meeting have failed to agree on the basis for talks on a permanent settlement due to follow the conference.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei said talks over the document were continuing, but other officials said it is unclear if it could be drafted in time. Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said efforts to reach a joint declaration would continue “to the last minute.”
The joint document is expected to mention the most intractable issues of their decades-long conflict — borders, refugees and Jerusalem. US President George W. Bush has pledged that the conference in Annapolis outside Washington on Nov. 27 will provide international support for the two sides to restart talks after a seven-year freeze marred by deadly violence.
Abdallah said he would “intensify talks with Arab leaders in the coming days to create unified efforts to support the Palestinians ahead of the meeting,” according to the palace. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is to hold a three-way summit today with Abbas and the king in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, as Arab foreign ministers meet in Cairo to decide on their participation at Annapolis.
Israel stepped up efforts yesterday to bolster Abbas. Israel approved a shipment of ammunition and 25 armored trucks to Abbas’ security forces in the West Bank, where his Fatah faction is dominant. Fatah lost control of the Gaza Strip in June to Hamas Islamists opposed to his peace moves.
Israeli officials said another 25 vehicles could be sent in future if Abbas’ forces make progress in curbing militants. Hamas’ Ezzeddine Al-Qassam Brigades branded the shipment a “Zionist gift” and accused Palestinian security services in the occupied West Bank of collaborating with Israel. Israel, which controls the Gaza Strip’s borders, also announced that flower and strawberry exports could resume from the impoverished territory to Europe. The shipments bring in $25 million a year and were suspended after Israel declared the Gaza Strip an enemy entity in September.
The United States announced it had invited about 40 countries, including Arab states Syria and Saudi Arabia, which have no relations with Israel, to the Nov. 27 conference on Palestinian statehood in Annapolis, Maryland. US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said he hoped Arab states would come but the United States did not yet have formal acceptances.
Hamas is viewed by Washington as a terrorist group and will be excluded from the meeting. The Qassam Brigades issued a statement putting Abbas on notice that “ceding any inch of Palestine is a national and moral crime.” Olmert has said Annapolis would not produce any peace deals but instead launch formal talks aimed at producing an agreement before Bush, faced with the legacy of an unpopular war in Iraq, leaves office in January 2009.
Olmert, weakened by corruption allegations he has denied and criticism of his handling of the 2006 Lebanon war, has said he will not put any future peace deals into motion until Palestinians fulfill their commitments under a US-backed road map, including reining in militants. The 2003 peace plan also calls on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, an obligation it has not met.
