WASHINGTON (Agencies)
American President Barack Obama will meet with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday during his trip to Washington, ending days of uncertainty as the U.S. Middle East peace drive is in crisis over a threat by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stand down.
Abbas's potential departure could mean the loss of a pivotal partner for Middle East peace talks, and it is likely to be the subject of discussions between Obama and Netanyahu.
U.S.-Israeli relations have been strained since Netanyahu rejected Obama's demand that the Israeli government stop building or expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians say Israel has deeply encroached into land the Palestinians claim for a future state.
" You could call it an exercise, or a threat. You can interpret it as you wish, but I wouldn't get very excited about it " Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman An Obama administration official confirmed the meeting but didn't say what was on the agenda. Aides to Netanyahu said the pair will discuss the peace process and the nuclear stand-off with Iran.
Spokesmen for Netanyahu said the main reason for his four-day trip, which will include a Paris stopover for talks with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, was a speech on Monday to a forum of North American Jewish leaders in Washington.
Netanyahu aide Nir Hefetz rejected any suggestion of a chill in ties with Washington over obstacles in the way of Obama's goal of renewing peace talks, stalled since the Gaza war.
Netanyahu has declined to comment on Abbas's announcement he will not stand in elections scheduled for Jan. 24 -- a move that could keep peace talks on hold for months to come.
But, he told reporters travelling with him to Washington: "We are ready to talk and the Palestinians aren't. It's as simple as that." |
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President Abbas Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas recently said that Israel does not want peace A moderate supported by the West, Abbas accused Washington of retreating from its demand for a freeze on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank before peace talks resume.
Israeli officials say Netanyahu wants to avoid interfering in Palestinian politics. But some commentators say the right-wing Israeli may be deliberately ignoring Abbas's threat, seeing it as just another bid to press Israel to halt settlement construction.
Netanyahu insists he needs to accommodate the needs of growing families in Israeli enclaves in the West Bank but has said Israel will avoid constructing any additional settlements.
Since taking office in March, he has repeatedly accused Abbas of delaying peace talks and setting new conditions. He has also introduced a new Israeli demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel "as a Jewish state."
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, himself a settler heading an ultranationalist party, said he did not take Abbas's threat seriously.
"You could call it an exercise, or a threat," Lieberman said. "You can interpret it as you wish, but I wouldn't get very excited about it."
Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate for his role in the first Israeli-Palestinian interim accord in 1993, has been virtually alone in urging Abbas to stay on.
Addressing tens of thousands at a candlelit memorial for assassinated Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, Peres spoke of Abbas, saying: "I say to him as a colleague -- do not let go!" |
