Egyptian, French presidents agree on efforts to bring all parties to negotiating table

Abbas: Negotiations to start only after Israel meets road map plan items

Israel goes on with settlement building, rejects international objection over its policies

Sultanov: Settlement freeze is prerequisite for realizing peace

Israeli ministers concerned over Netanyahu's defiance of Obama

Egyptian and French Presidents Hosni Mubarak and Nicolas Sarkozy held a summit meeting on Tuesday 21/7/2009 at the Elysee Palace on means to give an impetus to the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) and efforts exerted to achieve a peaceful settlement in the region.

President Mubarak said on Tuesday that his talks with French President Sarkozy dealt with many issues topped by the Palestinian cause which, he said, took most of the time.

In statements following his talks with Sarkozy, Mubarak said the talks also tackled conditions in the Gulf and bilateral relations.

Mubarak said that he also discussed with Sarkozy means to develop the Union for the Mediterranean, in addition to an initiative to achieve a settlement in the region.

On the formation of a new Lebanese government, Mubarak said "we are waiting for completion of contacts in this regard".

Asked about his expectations on the possibility of reaching a solution to the differences between Fatah and Hamas, Mubarak said "nobody can expect in this regard".

Mubarak said that Egypt was seeking to narrow the gap and settle differences between the two Palestinian factions.

After their Paris meeting on Tuesday 21/7/2009, the Egyptian and French presidents came out with an announcement: the G-8 should be replaced with the G-14 (G8 plus G5 plus Egypt).

A source with the Elysée Palace said Hosni Mubarak and Nicolas Sarkozy tackled the outcome of recent talks at the Group of Eight and Group of 14 summits in the Italian city of L'Aquila.

The Egyptian and French leaders also discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Time is only playing into the hands of extremists, Sarkozy said, urging strong initiatives to get conflicting parties back to the negotiating table.

The French President has been calling for holding an international peace conference for the purpose.

Mubarak, for his part, believes they should be talking to Washington, which he said should contribute to the Middle East peace process.

Both leaders stressed the importance of freezing all settlement activities in the West Bank and expected Israel to take steps toward that.

Presidents Mubarak and Sarkozy had important consultations in their summit earlier in the day as the two leaders expressed similar viewpoints on regional and international issues, a statement by the presidency said Tuesday.

The Mubarak-Sarkozy talks covered the outcomes of the recent G8 summit in Italy and Mubarak's participation in the Economic and Financial Forum for the Mediterranean in Milan.

The talks also took up the current situation in the Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Somalia.

During their meeting, Sarkozy asserted his support for Egypt to join the G8 and also the UN Security Council, the statement added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday renewed his conditions that peace talks with Israel won't resume unless the Jewish state stops settlement in the West Bank.

"We will go to the negotiations, but only when Israel be able to implement the obligations of the Road Map," Abbas told a news conference in Ramallah, referring to the U.S.-backed peace plan which sets a series of steps Israel and the Palestinians have to take to settle the conflict by having a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel.

"Dismantling the random settlement outposts are part of the demands in the Road Map and a freeze on all settlement activities is needed," Abbas said in response to an Israeli announcement to remove some settlers' random outposts in the West Bank.

According to Israeli media reports, Israeli hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a plan to remove 23 outposts in the West Bank in a bid to soften relations with Washington which has been demanding Israel to stop the Jewish settlement since President Barack Obama's administration took office.

The number of settlements in the West Bank is nearly 220, most of them such as Maale Adumim, a home to 37,000 mostly-ideologues Jews.

The Palestinians plan to have their statehood in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he would not take orders over Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, rejected a US demand to halt plans to build more homes for Jews in the disputed area.

New friction with Washington over the project to build 20 apartments in a part of Jerusalem captured by Israel in a 1967 war could deepen the most serious rift in relations between the two allies in a decade.

Israeli officials said the State Department had summoned Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, and told him plans for the construction approved this month by Israel’s Jerusalem municipality should be suspended.

“We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy (homes) anywhere in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said, calling the city Israel’s united capital, a claim that is not recognised internationally.

“I can only imagine what would happen if someone would suggest Jews could not live in certain neighbourhoods of New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a great international outcry,” he told reporters at the weekly cabinet meeting. “We cannot accept this edict in Jerusalem.”

The White House declined to comment.

Netanyahu and President Barack Obama are already at loggerheads over the US leader’s call for Israel to freeze Jewish settlement on occupied land Palestinians want for a state.

Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, due back in the region soon, and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak have been trying to work out a settlement deal that would include initial steps by Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel.

But constraints on Jewish settlement in Jerusalem could put a heavy strain on Netanyahu’s coalition, in which the future of the holy city is a red-flag issue for Jewish religious and ultranationalist partners.

Responding to Netanyahu’s comments, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Israeli leader had to realise that “settlements and peace are two parallels that do not go together”.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and declared all of the city its capital after the 1967 war. Palestinians say Jewish settlement on occupied land could deny them a viable state.

The housing project is within a compound in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood where the now-defunct Shepherd Hotel stands. It was bought in 1985 by an American Jewish millionaire who has been funding Jewish housing projects in East Jerusalem.

Israel’s Jerusalem municipality said its planning committee, acting in “full transparency,” gave approval for the 20 apartments and pledged to preserve “the historic structure” at the site.

Palestinians have questioned the legality of the acquisition, saying the compound had belonged to the former grand mufti, the leading Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. He went into exile in 1937 and died in 1974.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Mideast envoy Alexander Sultanov on Sunday called on Israel to stop building all kinds of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He made the appeal when meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem on Sunday.

After their talks, Sultanov told reporters that he and Moallem discussed the prospect of convening Moscow Mideast Peace Conference, bilateral relations, Mideast peace process and various regional issues.

The stances of Russia and Syria are close on most regional and international issues, Sultanov said.

On Saturday, the Russian deputy foreign minister met in Russian embassy with Khaled Meshaal, exiled chief of the Hamas movement.

The two discussed the latest developments in Middle East region, Palestinian-Israeli conflicts as well as the reconciliation of Palestinian factions.

The Russian diplomat urged the Palestinian leader to take national interests above all to "overcome the split and restore unity in Palestine as quickly as possible."

To revitalize the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Russia is planning to host an international peace conference on the Middle East in Moscow under the framework of the two-state solution by the end of this year.

Before arriving in Syria on Friday, Sultanov has visited Egypt and Lebanon. His regional trip also includes Jordan, Palestinian territories and Israel to push forward the Moscow conference.

The fact that Israel and the United States have yet to reach an agreement on Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank is as much a question of wider Middle East concerns as about the settlement issue itself.

The Americans have made clear that they see a freeze on settlement construction as a key instrument of policy designed to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian and regional peacemaking.

In their White House meeting in mid-May, President Obama reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he also needed Israel’s commitment to a freeze to secure international support for tougher policies against Iran if Washington’s diplomatic overtures to Tehran fail.

The Israeli side agrees with both these goals and apparently is prepared to make concessions on the settlement issue to achieve them.

What the Israelis fear, however, is a scenario in which they impose the settlement freeze but the Americans fail to deliver on promised regional peace moves.

The Israelis want to use the freeze as leverage for Arab moves toward normalizing ties with the Jewish state.

Imposing a full settlement freeze is a strong card the Israeli administration is reluctant to play until it sees something tangible from the Arab side, such as Arab countries allowing Israeli civilian flights over their territories or opening up economic interest sections in Israel.

Despite strong personal efforts by Obama, the Americans thus far have been unable to obtain clear-cut Arab commitments.

As for the settlements, the issue seems largely to be a question of definition: Where along the continuum—from approving building plans to issuing tenders, signing contracts, starting new projects or finishing projects already started—must things stop to qualify as a freeze?

Israel wants to complete some 2,500 units already under construction. It also would like a freeze not to preclude building upward, to enable existing structures to add floors. And it wants the freeze to be for a limited time.

The Americans, however, are wary of the notion of a temporary freeze. They argue that to limit construction for only a short time could cost them their newly won credibility in the Arab world.

“It could make our call for a settlement freeze look like a gimmick rather than the serious instrument of policy it is meant to be,” a senior U.S. official said.

The compromise that seems to be shaping up is that Israel will agree to an indefinite freeze on all building in return for strong American assurances on Iran and meaningful Arab gestures toward normalization with Israel.

On Iran, one of the possibilities on the agenda is stronger economic sanctions, including a U.N.-sanctioned naval blockade. Israel’s agreement to a settlement freeze would help Obama build the strong international coalition he needs for such a strong measure against Iran.

In late May, after his meeting with Obama, Netanyahu indicated that something along those lines is in the works.

Netanyahu told the Likud Party’s Knesset faction that Israel would have to uproot illegal West Bank outposts if it wanted America in its corner on Iran.

“If we don’t mobilize the U.S. and other nations of the world for this purpose”—stopping Iran’s nuclear drive – “no one will,” the prime minister declared.

The point man on the Israeli side in the negotiations with Washington on the settlement freeze has been Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who confirmed the wider regional considerations in a radio interview earlier this month.

“I think it’s clear that if an initiative gets under way for a comprehensive regional agreement that brings in other Arab countries,” Barak said, “the settlements don’t cease to be important, but they are put into the proper perspective.”

If and when Netanyahu does declare a settlement freeze, he will face strong right-wing domestic opposition, especially from the settler movement. That is partly why he and Barak need to be able to show the Israeli public that the concession was made in return for substantial regional gains.

In their campaign against a freeze of any kind, settler leaders maintain that Israel’s sovereign decision-making capacity is at stake.

“If in the face of mildly strong winds from Washington, Netanyahu comes out first in favor of a Palestinian state and then agrees to a building freeze, it won’t end there,” said Dani Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council settler umbrella organization. “The pattern in which the big decisions are taken in Washington will continue until Jerusalem is divided.”

It’s not clear where the Israeli public stands.

A mid-June poll commissioned by the Ariel University Center in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Ariel asked whether or not respondents supported a “full freeze,” including in Jerusalem and the large settlement blocs. The result was 56 percent against and 37 percent for a freeze, but since most Israelis don’t regard eastern Jerusalem as a settlement, the figure supporting a construction freeze exclusively in the West Bank may be larger.

A poll taken a week earlier and published in the Yediot Achronot newspaper showed 70 percent in favor of evacuating illegal outposts and 56 percent in favor of accepting Obama’s demands on settlements, which were not defined.

The next move in the ongoing settlement saga is a top-level meeting this month in Jerusalem between Netanyahu and U.S. special Middle East envoy George Mitchell. They were scheduled to meet in Paris in late June, but the meeting was called off because of insufficient progress on the settlement issue.

If this meeting goes ahead, it may well be a sign that the two sides are near an agreement.