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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Palestinians want US guarantees before talks |
| 2010-12-15 |
| Negotiation involves trading tits for tats. Getting guarantees means you don't have to give anything away -- all the load's on the other side. Or you can just wait them out and eventually the EU will recognize you and express surprise you don't already have all the stuff you've been demanding. [Bangla Daily Star] Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas was hoping to secure a series of US guarantees before resuming peace talks with Israel, as he met with Washington's Middle East envoy. George Mitchell returned to the region on Monday for the first time in months on a mission to salvage peace talks between Israel and the Paleostinians a week after Washington admitted that direct negotiations were off the menu. Mitchell is trying to secure Paleostinian agreement to discuss the key issues of the conflict through indirect negotiations with the Israelis. Ahead of the morning meeting, a senior Paleostinian official said Abbas was hoping to get Washington's answer to a list of demands laid out in a letter handed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... last week by chief Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. "Last week, Erakat delivered a letter to Hillary saying that they want US guarantees and answers before returning to any negotiations, direct or indirect," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. ... for fear of being murdered... "We are now awaiting the answer to that letter." The letter lays out two key requests on which the Paleostinians are conditioning their return to any peace talks with Israel. Firstly, it demands US guarantees that there would be "a complete halt to settlement in the West Bank and east Jerusalem." It also calls on the United States to recognise a Paleostinian state based on Israel's borders of before the 1967 Six-Day War in which the Jewish state seized the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gazoo Strip. If Washington refuses, the letter asks that the administration of President Barack B.O.Obama not take steps to prevent the Paleostinians from seeking such recognition from the UN Security Council. "If there was no agreement on these points and no recognition by the administration of a Paleostinian state, then the US administration was requested not to block the Paleostinians from going to the Security Council and the General Assembly," the source said. "Abbas is waiting for US answers to his request, which he expects Mitchell will have during his meeting today in Ramallah." The letter also asks for Washington to reaffirm its commitment to ending Israel's occupation of the territories seized in 1967 and the establishment of a two-state solution, with a Paleostinian state within those borders. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Isn't there a commercial where two youngsters are sitting on a bench, one with a candy bar and the other with a hammer. "Trade you my candy bar for your hammer." One says, the other says sure and they trade. Guy with the hammer bonks the other one and gets his candy bar back. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-12-15 20:51 |
| #2 Problem is, OBumbles / Biden is just stupid enough to fall for it. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-12-15 17:35 |
| #1 list of demands laid out in a letter "First you give us everything we want, then we'll talk, but after you give us everything we want, there's no need to "Talk". Typical Muslim bullshit. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-12-15 13:09 |