By WAM
WAM Sharjah : The US has twisted the Palestinian arm again, opined The Gulf Today.
”That is what is emerging from the statement made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to resume peace talks suspended over an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said earlier the negotiations could not get under way again until Israel reached a ceasefire with Hamas behind cross-border rocket attacks,” the paper wrote in its Wednesday’s editoroial.
Obviously, the paper noted that Abbas’s comments sparked an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by Rice with the Palestinians before she told a news conference that a truce was not a condition for restarting the US-brokered talks on Palestinian statehood.
”While the world would definitely like the negotiations to be resumed leading to an equitable and fair settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it fails to see the point in any discussions while Israel presses ahead with its campaign of genocide and destruction against the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip,”the Sharjah-based added.
Obviously, it continued, Abbas was pressured into agreeing that Rice would make a statement that he agreed to resume talks. That much is also clear from the statement issued by his office which did not repeat his condition for talks and said Rice was exerting efforts to “enforce a mutual calm” and Abbas’s intention was to “resume the peace process and the negotiations.” ”We wonder how far Rice, in her talks on Wednesday, touched on the Palestinian demand that Israel freeze its settlement activity in the occupied territories as part of its obligations under the “road map.” By and large, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank is living up to their obligations of checking armed resistance from the territory,”it remarked.
No doubt, it indicated, the process of verifying Israel’s compliance with its obligation is going to be long and drawn out while the Palestinian leadership would remain under pressure to ensure that they meet their commitments in the same framework.
”As such, Rice pulled all the plugs in her latest mission. But what remains to be seen is how any realistic peace negotiations could take place against the backdrop of Israel’s determination to use military force to subdue the Palestinians into accepting its terms for peace’,”the paper concluded.