Israel rejects United States peace plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the US President Barrack Obama in Washington but promptly rejected President Obama s proposal that Israel return to the 1967 borders for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Obama that Palestinian President Mehmood Abbas had to choose between peace and Hamas. On the other hand, President Obama said that the situation is Syria is alarming for Israel and the United States.

Obama: New Israel settlements no help to peace process

JAKARTA: U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that renewed Israeli settlement activity does not help peace negotiations with the Palestinians and that neither side is making the extra effort needed for a breakthrough.

Israel said on Monday it would push ahead with plans for 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.

The timing of the announcement could prove an embarrassment for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the United States looking for ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the Jewish settlement-building.

“This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations,” Obama told a news conference in Jakarta, where he was due to make a speech reaching out to the Muslim world before leaving Indonesia on Wednesday.

“And

Israel plans 1,300 homes in Arab East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: Israel is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, the Interior Ministry said on Monday, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.

The timing of the announcement could prove an embarrassment for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the United States looking for ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the issue of Jewish settlement building.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said plans for some 1,300 Jewish housing units in two neighbourhoods on land Israel seized in a 1967 war had been made public, passing another procedural stage towards eventual construction.

She said the public could still raise objections to the plans and it could take a long time before building commenced.

“It can take months or years from this point until

Palestinians say no talks sans settlement curbs

Senior Palestinian politicians have backed President Mahmud Abbas’s demand to link peace talks to restrictions on Israeli settlement building.
The announcement came after a meeting of dozens of leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Abbas’s Fatah movement.
However, a final decision is only expected at an Arab League summit in Libya next weekend.
The development delivers a new setback to US efforts to salvage Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is adamant about not extending a moratorium on settlement building, said in a statement earlier in the day that peace can only be achieved in negotiations and urged the Palestinians to continue talks.

Palestinian leader vows peace, urges settlement end

UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Saturday to do everything possible to make peace negotiations with Israel succeed and avoided any direct threats to break off the talks over settlements.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Abbas said the Palestinians would expend “every sincere effort” to reach a peace agreement with Israel within a year.

He did not refer to Sunday’s expiry of an Israeli freeze on new settlement construction in the West Bank. However, he made clear that Israel would have to cease all settlement activities if the direct negotiations with Israel are to succeed.

“Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements,” he said.

Abbas has repeatedly threatened to break off the fragile negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the settlements. The

Netanyahu is a serial killer: Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called him a skilled killer in an interview with CNN’s Larry King Live.
When asked to comment on Netanyahu’s declaration that a nuclear Iran is the greatest threat facing humanity, the Iranian president shrugged off the statement, saying Netanyahu is nothing but a skilled killer.Netanyahu should be put on trial for killing Palestinians for putting Gaza under siege. He should be put on trial for killing women and children, said Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad insisted that the international sanctions imposed on Iran are not hurting his country, and maintained his claim that Iran isn’t interested in developing nuclear weapons, instead, he deflected the focus on the United States and Israel’s nuclear program. Both the Zionist regime and the United States government should be disarmed, he said. The threat to the world are the bombs that the U.S. government and the Zionist regime have. We have no interested in atomic weapons, said the Iranian president. We do not think that is useful. The US and key Western allies fear Iran could try to process its low enriched uranium into highly enriched uranium, which could be used to make an atomic weapon. Iran insists its nuclear program is purely peaceful, aimed solely at producing nuclear energy. Iran has defied four rounds of increasingly restrictive economic sanctions aimed at compelling Tehran to prove it is not building a nuclear weapons program. Iran adamantly denies accusations from the US and its allies that it seeks atomic arms. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak Thursday at the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting in New York.

US sees progress in Mideast peace talks

JERUSALEM: The United States said on Wednesday it believed Israel and the Palestinians were making progress toward resolving a dispute over settlement building that threatens to sink their newly-launched peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to his official residence, shaking his hand as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looked on approvingly, a day after the three met in Egypt.

Following the two-hour session, US envoy George Mitchell sounded an upbeat note the negotiations would continue despite the September 30 expiry of Israel’s partial moratorium on construction in settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“That subject was discussed this evening, we continue in our efforts to make progress in that regard and believe that we are doing so,” Mitchell told reporters.

Palestinians say they

Clinton warmly endorses Netanyahu, Abbas

JERUSALEM: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warmly endorsed Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday ahead of negotiations to try to break a deadlock over Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

“This is the time, and these are the leaders,” Clinton said before she was to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who resumed direct peace talks two weeks ago after a 20-month hiatus.

Saying the two were “getting down to business” and tackling the main issues of the six-decade conflict, Clinton gave no sign they were any closer to resolving the dispute over Jewish settlement building that threatens the U.S.-brokered talks.

Speaking after she met Israeli President Shimon Peres, Clinton described Netanyahu and Abbas as sincere and serious and urged them to seize what she called “a moment of

Clinton hosts new round of Israel-Palestinian talks

JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday presides over fresh Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Jerusalem aimed at narrowing the gap on Jewish settlements and tackling core issues.

She arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday for more three-way talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, a day after two lengthy sessions with them in Egypt’s resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

On her first visit to the Middle East since launching new direct peace talks in Washington on September 2, Clinton discussed the partial 10-month Israeli freeze on settlements due to expire this month, US officials said.

US envoy George Mitchell, who participated in the talks in Egypt, said the Israeli and Palestinian leaders “began a serious discussion on core issues.”

These are Israel’s security, the borders of a future

Egypt hosts second round of Israel-Palestinian talks

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are to hold a second round of peace talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was time for both sides to get down to business.
She also reiterated that Israel should extend its partial moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, which expires on 26 September. The Palestinian Authority has said it will walk out of the negotiations if building on occupied territory resumes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that some of the thousands of new homes planned for the West Bank might not be built, but hinted that the moratorium on all construction might not be renewed. We will not freeze the lives of the residents, he said. However, the chief Palestinian negotiator said there could be no half solutions. If it chooses any kind of settlement building, this means that it has destroyed the whole peace process and it would be fully responsible for that, Saeb Erekat told the Associated Press. Another problem facing negotiators is that only one part of the Palestinian territories is represented because the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, opposes the talks.

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