Friday, May 29, 2009

Abbas to meet with Obama today, demands that Netanyahu accept Palestinian state

Jihad Watch

Not that he has ever accepted the principle of a Jewish state. In any case, I expect that the contrast between this meeting and Obama's chilly meeting with Netanyahu will be marked, and we will see considerably more warmth and enthusiasm -- and considerably less talk of responsibilities and obligations -- from the sainted new American President Mideast: Abbas To Meet With Obama Today, Wants Assurances," from ANSAmed, May 28 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - WASHINGTON, MAY 28 - U.S. president Barack Obama will be meeting with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas today at the White House for talks bound to focus on the need for Palestinians to receive reassurances on the U.S. commitment to the "two-state" solution, and the pressure on Israel to stop its enlargement of settlements in the West Bank.
The talks will inevitably be influenced by the negative outcome of the meeting at the White House a few days ago between Obama and Israeli premier Benyamin Netanyahu, which highlighted the differences of opinion between the two leaders on the direction to be taken to resume peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. On the eve of his meeting with Obama, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that premier Netanyahu must agree to the principle of a Palestinian state before peace talks can resume.

One of Abbas's spokesmen has said that the Palestinian president intends to stress to Obama the need to "to move from speaking to acting" as concerns Tel Aviv's promises to block the expansion of settlements. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton reiterated yesterday that the Obama administration has asked Israelis to freeze their settlements in the West Bank "without any exceptions". However, within the Palestinian delegation there is much scepticism over the ability of the United States to effectively intervene in the new Israeli government, which seems to have set aside for the time being the commitment made in Annapolis (by the previous government) to move in the direction of a two-state solution, one Israeli and one Palestinian, as the only way to peace.

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