White House oversees Middle East peace talks

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally opened the first direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years on Thursday, imploring the parties to make needed compromises to forge an agreement.

At a ceremony in the State Department's ornate Benjamin Franklin room, Clinton said the Obama administration was committed to bringing about a settlement in a year's time. But she stressed that after decades of failed attempts, the heavy lifting must be done by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“You each have taken an important step toward freeing your peoples from the shackles of a history we cannot change,” Clinton said.

Earlier Obama said he was “cautiously hopeful” about the talks, which began with dim expectations and have been marred by two shooting attacks against Israelis in as many days.

Mediated at the State Department by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, the two leaders' discussions face numerous obstacles, not least renewed violence and provocations from Israelis and Palestinians opposed to the goal of an independent Palestine and secure Israel.

Gunmen from the militant Palestinian Hamas group, which opposes the talks, killed four Israeli residents of a West Bank settlement on Tuesday as Netanyahu, Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan convened in Washington. And on Wednesday, hours before the leaders were to eat dinner together at the White House, gunmen wounded two Israelis as they drove in their car in another part of the West Bank. Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack as well.

After the first attack, security forces loyal to Abbas, who heads a moderate government in the West Bank, quickly rounded up 250 Hamas members and supporters. Netanyahu said the violence would not disrupt the talks.

Before the White House dinner with Netanyahu, Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, Obama said they all had a stake in the peace efforts as leaders and fathers.

“Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?” Obama asked in the packed East Room of the White House. Each of the leaders spoke of his hopes for a breakthrough, with the U.S. playing the role of peace broker, but the event was subdued, reflecting broad pessimism about chances of success after nearly two decades of failed peace talks.

Israelis “recognize that another people shares this land with us,” Netanyahu said at the White House on Wednesday. But he said any agreement must guarantee Israel's security and could not be a repeat of Israel's unilateral withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, where territory evacuated was seized by Iran-backed militants who launched further attacks on Israel.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email