Clinton, Netanyahu hold marathon Mideast talks
AFP
Date: 11/11/2010
by Ron Bousso Ron Bousso – Thu Nov 11, 4:05 pm ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held lengthy talks Thursday with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a row over Jewish settlements in the occupied territories risked ending the latest Middle East peace effort.
Before beginning the discussion in New York, Clinton vowed to find "a way forward," while Netanyahu said "a historic agreement" with the Palestinians was still possible.
US and Israeli officials joined the pair after a head–to–head meeting lasting two hours. The talks were still ongoing after six hours, which an Israeli official said was longer than expected.
The United States, which brokered the Israel–Palestinian talks launched in September, has led global criticism of Israel's new plan to build 1,300 homes in occupied east Jerusalem, where Israeli police clashed with stone throwing Arab youths for a third straight day.
Ahead of the Clinton–Netanyahu talks at a New York hotel, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said he would hold US President Barack Obama to his pledge to seek the creation of a Palestinian state within a year.
"We consider this statement to be a commitment by President Obama, not just a slogan, and we hope that next year he won't say to us 'we apologize, we can't,'" Abbas said.
The Palestinians have refused to hold talks since Israel ended a freeze on settler construction.
But Clinton commented at the start of the meeting that "the prime minister and president Abbas are both very committed to a two–state solution and we are going to find a way forward."
"We're going to be talking about everything," she added.
Netanyahu said: "We will be talking about how to resume and continue this process to get a historic agreement with peace and security between us and the Palestinians."
"We also hope to broaden it to many other Arab countries... we are quite serious about doing it and we want to get on with it," he added.
Netanyahu has dismissed the international criticism of the settlement plans as "overblown." Israel has insisted there is no connection between the peace talks and the settlements in occupied territories.
Obama has made the deadlocked Middle East peace process a foreign policy priority though he acknowledged this week that there are "enormous obstacles."
Warning against "unilateral steps" and expressing "deep disappointment" with the Israeli move, Clinton nevertheless sought to remain upbeat about the peace campaign going into the New York talks.
"We still believe a positive outcome is both possible and necessary," she told a Washington press conference on Wednesday.
Netanyahu said before the meeting that he was going to discuss with Clinton "how to move towards a broad understanding of an agreement with the Palestinians and perhaps others in the Arab world based on security."
According to a senior Israeli official, the premier will raise the need for US understanding "on Israel's security needs in a peace agreement."
Netanyahu has insisted Israel will maintain a military presence along the eastern border of any future Palestinian state.
Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, said Netanyahu was likely to remain defiant.
The premier is determined "to make it unmistakably clear to the Americans that Jerusalem was never a part of this understanding and will not be a part of it in the future. There's no question that he's prepared to stand his ground," Miller told AFP.
Netanyahu believes that the Obama administration will not make settlements a "make or break issue" as they prefer to focus on the details of a future peace agreement, Miller said.
In Jerusalem, visiting US Senator John Kerry warned that the moment for Middle East peace was in danger of slipping away.
"The window of opportunity for a comprehensive peace is closing, narrowing is the best way to put it," he told reporters at a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
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