Abbas: No progress in talks with Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) - April 25, 2008 In an interview with The Associated Press, the Palestinian
leader sounded pessimistic about the prospects of achieving any
deal with Israel this year despite a big U.S. push that began five
months ago at a summit in Annapolis, Md.
"Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved. But we are still
conducting direct work to have a solution," Abbas said.
Abbas said the biggest obstacle is Israel's continued expansion
of Jewish settlements on Palestinian-occupied territories.
"We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the
road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion,"
Abbas said, expressing disappointment the U.S. hasn't exerted more
pressure on Israel to stop. "This is the biggest blight that
stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations."
Asked for comment, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said:
"President Bush is helping to push the process forward. This
wasn't a meeting in which major breakthroughs were expected.
"Ultimately, this is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to
come to an agreement. Each party has more to do - and given the
serious commitment of the leaders, the president remains confident
that defining a state by the end of the year is still possible."
Israel is pushing forward with controversial building projects
on disputed land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and is
refusing to take down illegal settlement outposts, release
Palestinian prisoners, halt military incursions, and dismantle
roadblocks that severely disrupt daily life.
Abbas' aides said he also was upset after his lunch Thursday
with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. While discussing what a
peace deal would look like, Rice didn't mention the Palestinian
goal of creating a state based on borders before Israel captured
Palestinian land during the 1967 Mideast war.
"We demanded that they talk about the '67 borders," Abbas told
AP, showing a rare flash of anger. "None of them talks about the
'67 borders."
Asked whether U.S. officials offered any new U.S. proposals,
Abbas said no.
"They are exerting efforts. And we are still negotiating," he
said, but he noted that no progress had been made on any of the
core issues.
"All the files are still open. None of them are concluded. The
situation is still as it was," Abbas said, speaking in Arabic.
The main unresolved issues include the final borders of a
Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem, disputed Israeli
settlements and Palestinian refugees.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Bush didn't
respond directly when Abbas brought up the issue of Palestinian
objections to continuing Israeli settlement expansion when the two
leaders met Thursday at the White House.
"Bush told him (Abbas) that I'm focusing on the bigger
picture," Erekat explained.
Abbas said he was looking for a full Middle East peace framework
agreement that would be detailed and includes timetables, while the
Israelis have signaled that a "declaration of principles" would
be enough of an achievement before Bush leaves office in January
2009.
"We don't want a declaration of principle because we had one,"
Abbas said, referring to the 1993 peace agreement reached at Oslo
between the Palestinians and Israel. "Now we want a normal
agreement. And then we can go for the details."
Despite his disappointment, Abbas said he would still meet with
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regularly in hopes of achieving
a deal. But there are no three-way talks scheduled anytime soon
with Bush, Abbas and Olmert.
Bush is scheduled to visit Israel in May to help Olmert
celebrate the country's 60th anniversary, and then the U.S.
president will travel to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to
see Abbas separately.
"It will be a bilateral meeting between me and Bush. That is
the meeting I was invited for," Abbas said.
Abbas said the one thing he did achieve during his U.S visit was
to lay out the Palestinian conditions for any peace deal and press
his case that he cannot go for any partial agreement because the
Palestinian people would not accept it.
"We have made clear our position to the president, to the State
Department and to the Congress," Abbas said during the 15-minute
interview in his hotel room in Washington. "And now our position
is very clear to all of them."
Abbas' moderate and Western-backed government rules the West
Bank, the territory that would eventually form the bulk of an
independent Palestinian state. Hamas, the Islamic militant group
that seized control of Gaza and serves a rival force to Abbas, is
not involved in the peace negotiations with Israel.
Abbas has been losing popular support for the peace process due
to a lack of any changes on the ground for people whose daily lives
have been disrupted by Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks that
Israel says are meant to maintain security and stop militant
attacks on Israeli citizens.