RAMALLAH/WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will seek to restart Mideast peace talks on Tuesday when he hosts a meeting with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The three-way meeting in New York will be “immediately preceded” by bilateral talks between Obama and the two leaders, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
It will seek “to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of negotiations, and to create a positive context for those negotiations so that they can succeed,” Gibbs said. Shortly after the announcement, Netanyahu's office said the prime minister “responded positively” to the invitation.
Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Sunday Abbas will attend the three-way meeting.
“We have accepted President Obama's invitation for a three-way meeting with Abbas and Netanyahu at UN headquarters in New York,” Erekat said.
“We hope that this meeting will be an opportunity for President Obama to listen to the different points of view and to understand who is blocking the negotiations,” Erekat said.
The chief Palestinian negotiator accused Israel however of blocking the resumption of peace negotiations that have been stalled since December.
“For us, it is Israel that is blocking them, because it refuses to apply the provisions of the road map,” he added, referring to the international peace plan launched by major world powers in 2003. “It is Netanyahu who refuses the call by Obama to resume negotiations on the basis of international resolutions and the ‘road map,’ and we hope that the American president will force the parties to apply them,” he said.
Another high-ranking Palestinian Authority official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Abbas’ attendance did not mean a resumption of peace talks (with Israel), because these depend on a halt to the building of settlements by the Jewish state.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was quoted by the official Hamas website as saying that any agreement reached by Abbas at the trilateral summit would not be honored by the Palestinian people.
“Neither the Palestine Liberation Organization nor anyone else (Abbas) can negotiate issues of Jerusalem, borders or refugees on behalf of the Palestinian people,” Haniyeh said.
He said that any agreement signed during the talks would not be binding on the Palestinians, and that “no concession will be honored.”
Haniyeh called the negotiations “useless” and said there was no difference between Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush.
A US administration official cautioned against any expectations of a breakthrough or agreement coming out of the meeting, which will be held ahead of the United Nations General Assembly.
Obama thought it was important to get all three leaders together in a room to “continue to try to bridge gaps and bridge divides,” the official said, in line with the president’s vow to engage in the Middle East peace process from the start of his presidency.
The Middle East peace Quartet — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — also plans to hold talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next week.
Meanwhile, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, identified one of the dead men as its member.
— With input from agencies
