Abbas has little wriggle room in talks with Clinton

PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas is to meet US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi today with the aim of ending the impasse over resuming the Middle East peace process.

She is also scheduled to meet Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu tomorrow.

Last week Mrs Clinton reported to US president Barack Obama that little progress had been made during intensive US shuttles between the sides.

Her discussions in the region will take place ahead of meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Morocco early next week.

Mr Abbas is reported to have said he is “willing to give Netanyahu one more chance” to propose an agenda for negotiations which Palestinians can accept.

But Mr Abbas does not see Mr Netanyahu as a partner because, in Mr Abbas’s view, the Israeli leader is sticking to positions held when he was last premier, between 1996 and 1999.

Mr Abbas predicted a “descent into violence” and stated “we have no more than two to three weeks during which something [positive] must happen”.

Although it is reported that Mrs Clinton could propose US-mediated indirect talks and that Mr Netanyahu is prepared to reach an “interim agreement” with the Palestinians, Mr Abbas is in no position to agree to either idea.

He can accept nothing less than conclusive negotiations on “final status” issues of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements, borders and natural resources, issues which Mr Netanyahu refuses to discuss. They have remained unresolved since the Oslo accords were signed in 1993.

Mr Abbas’s standing with the Palestinian public has dropped from a low of 17 per cent in June to 14 per cent this month. If presidential elections were held as scheduled in January, Mr Abbas could be defeated by his Hamas rival in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.

Mr Abbas has been castigated for his failure to achieve a deal with Israel, halt Israeli settlement expansion, end the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and counter Israeli religious extremists seeking to take over Jerusalem’s mosque compound.

Mr Abbas also made a major mistake when he attempted to postpone debate on the report by judge Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes committed during Israel’s recent war on Gaza at the UN Human Rights Council last month.

In a bid to regain lost ground, during the past five Sundays Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement has been embroiled in clashes with Israeli security forces at the mosque compound.

The most prominent Fatah figure involved has been Hatem Abdel Qader, who resigned as minister in charge of the Jerusalem file in protest at Mr Abbas’s passivity.

Following fresh violence in the holy city last weekend, Mr Abbas, who is under pressure from Fatah to endorse violent resistance, issued an angry statement speaking of the movement’s determination to “unite [with other forces] in the battle to defend Jerusalem and the holy places”.

Many Palestinians predict a “third intifada,” a fresh uprising against Israel, and argue it could be sparked by a clash anywhere in the Palestinian territories.

Palestinians are furious over nightly Israeli army raids into West Bank towns and cities and arrests of dozens of Palestinians.

Three Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem were demolished this past week and the Israeli army pulled down a tent sheltering a Palestinian family evicted from its home several months ago.

Oxfam is investigating the destruction of a cistern and irrigation pipes constructed by the agency with EU funding.

Yesterday, Israeli settlers attempted to evict a Palestinian family from its home in East Jerusalem, and two Palestinians were stabbed at the Damascus Gate leading into the walled city.