Abbas: I failed in U.S., no progress in peace talks

[bemildred]

WASHINGTON - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and he is returning home from Washington with little to show for his visit.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, the Palestinian leader sounded pessimistic about the prospects of achieving any deal with Israel this year, despite a big U.S. push that began five months ago at a Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland.

"Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved. But we are still conducting direct work to have a solution," Abbas said. On Thursday, Abbas asked Bush to tighten American monitoring over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank.

"We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion," Abbas said, expressing disappointment the U.S. has not exerted more pressure on Israel to stop. "This is the biggest blight that stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978049.html

[subsuelo]

1. Why should the US pressure Israel to stop stealing land? nt

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. Time for a new plan, Abu Mazen.

1. Repair the breach between Fatah and Hamas
2. Hold new elections. Abide by the results.
3. Begin an national program of nonviolent resistance
4. Create international support and organize a worldwide program of boycott, sanctions and divestment.

Give up the dream of ruling over an ineffective bureaucracy.

Re-acquaint yourself with the cause of national liberation!!

[Vegasaurus]

7. I actually agree with this poster

for the most part.

However, in terms of repairing the breach between Fatah and Hamas this year, the two sides couldn't even agree on joint "naqba" commemorations. Instead, on May 15, the date Palestinians mark the "naqba," Abbas' Fatah movement will sound sirens in public squares and hold large rallies, while Hamas plans a separate event.

If they cannot even agree on this, how can they possibly agree to anything more important?

[azurnoir]

3. If there is any truth to a

"secret deal between Israel and the US over settlement building" and I believe there is, then the whole peace summit was nothing more than a photo-op. Abu Mazen has been a tool.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x209441

[bemildred]

4. I was surprised that was being bandied about in public.

I was surprised there was ever anything written down. One of the highest meta-rules is never interfere with the other guy's "plausible deniability" unless you want to make an implacable enemy.

[azurnoir]

5. It would indicate that Olmert is POed

The letter was written during Sharon's era, and Bush it seems has a different attitude towards Olmert, he tends to issue Olmert "commands", there were a couple of threads here a while back about Bush telling Olmert he must do this or that, this was way pre-Annapolis, but I remember wondering if Bush would dare take such a tone with Sharon.

[bemildred]

6. Bush tends to view everyone as tools.

Which of course annoys them if they have pretensions to some higher role in life. It's remarkable already, the quantity of wreckage he's left behind him.