RAMALLAH, West Bank, 21 December 2007 — Israeli sources said yesterday that their government is opposed to Russian plans to hold a Middle East peace conference that would address Israel’s conflicts with Syria and Lebanon as well as the Palestinian issue in Moscow as a followup to the recent Annapolis parley.
According to the officials, the reservations stem from the Israeli need to focus on bilateral talks with the Palestinians “and not be dragged onto a slippery slope of opening negotiations on other issues like Syria and Lebanon during the present time.”
Palestinian and Israeli teams on Dec. 12 held their first formal peace talks following the Annapolis summit, during which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced the start of a new round of bilateral peace talks aimed at reaching a deal by the end of 2008. Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said that the second round of talks will be held on Dec. 23.
However, senior Israeli officials told the daily Haaretz that the government would be compelled to take part in the conference should the event take place.
The officials said that Israel used diplomatic backchannels to urge participants of the Quartet’s Paris donors’ conference earlier this week to omit any mention of a Moscow peace summit from the final statement.
The United States, the United Nations, and the European Union acquiesced to Israel’s demand, and the matter was not included on the agenda. Government officials say Israel is perturbed by Russia’s behavior, chiefly Moscow’s delivery of nuclear fuel to the Iranian reactor in Bushehr.
“There are other things that the Russians are doing that we aren’t thrilled with,” said an Israeli official. “But, at this point, we have no plans to create a crisis.”
Israeli Foreign Ministry said last week that the United States supports the holding of Moscow’s conference. According to the Ministry’s information, the conference would probably take place in April 2008 and would be at the level of foreign ministers.
In another development, the EU Middle East envoy Marc Otte said that the mechanism for an international security presence in the Gaza Strip “could be devised quickly” if Israel and the Palestinians reach an agreement on the matter.
Otte said there is “definitely more interest than in the past” for the idea from both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
“After the (July’s) Lebanon War, the sides see the merit in an international security presence,” Otte said, referring to the international force in southern Lebanon. At the same time, he said, “we are a long way away from implementation.”
Otte said that the EU was currently “in a listening mode” on the matter, adding: “We must make sure that all the parties are interested.”
Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have spoken positively about an international force during the Paris donors’ conference.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the conference that France “proposes the deployment, when the time and conditions are right, of an international force to assist the Palestinian security services.”
On Tuesday, Abbas said he supported Sarkozy’s proposal, telling a press conference in Paris that he welcomed the idea. “We are working for this to become the international position in the near future,” he said.
Livni hinted at a NATO meeting in Brussels earlier this month that NATO would have to play a part in ensuring security if Israel were to carry out significant territorial concessions.
“Israel’s ability to reach an agreement based on substantial territorial concessions directly relates to our need to make sure we do not jeopardize our security and our future. Here, I believe, the dialogue between Israel and NATO begins,” Livni said.
The Hamas movement ousted Abbas’ security forces and Fatah militants and took control of the Gaza Strip following weeks of fierce armed clashes between the two rival movements last June. Since then, Fatah is ruling the West Bank and Hamas is ruling the Gaza Strip. Abbas sacked Hamas-led national unity government and appointed one chaired by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Hamas asked for a resumption of unconditioned dialogue with Fatah. Abbas conditioned that any resumption of dialogue with Hamas has to be preceded by Hamas regret over taking over Gaza, and should bring the situation back to that before mid June.
Hamas movement is facing difficulties in ruling the Gaza Strip as Israel imposed a tightened siege on the enclave, in addition to a world embargo imposed on Hamas since it had won in the legislative elections in Jan. 2006.
Hamas refused three Quartet requirements in order to end the embargo: recognizing Israel, to honor the signed interim agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, to condemn violence and refrain from attacking Israel.
