Op-Ed Contributors

Vague Middle East talks

By Yu Guoqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-07 07:58
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Settlements, refugees, and hardliners are still the major impediments to clinching and observing a peace agreement

Propelled by the United States, the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relaunched direct peace talks in Washington on Sept 2, the first direct talks since Israel mounted a devastating military assault on the Gaza Strip in December 2008.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US believed these negotiations, aimed at achieving a final peace agreement, "can be completed within a year".

Starting September, both sides have agreed to meet every two weeks in the Middle East.

The US has its own interest in striving to enable the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian direct talks at this point in time. Though President Barack Obama, as promised, has spared no effort in coaxing the Israelis and Palestinians back to the bargaining table, he has accomplished little real progress in resolving the conflict during the past year and a half, due to the two parties' opposition to talks.

However, in the face of the upcoming midterm elections, President Obama is keen to broker a change in the Middle East crisis. Therefore, the resumption of direct talks is in the interest of US domestic politics.

But despite being hailed by the host as a productive first round of talks, the peace process still faces severe challenges ahead.

The first core issue is the Israeli settlements, which have been not only the priority of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but also a source of tension between Israel and the US.

The issue of settlement construction, namely territorial disputes, is the essential problem of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Washington has been exerting respectable pressure on Israel over the settlements issue so as to improve its image in the Arab world.

However, the Palestinians say Israel has never halted settlement activities in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, resulting in more scattered Palestinian territories and the hindering of the establishment of an independent Palestine state.

The temporary residential construction freeze in the West Bank announced by the Israeli government last November is set to expire at the end of this month.

Currently, about 300,000 Israelis live in Jewish settlements on the West Bank. The Palestinians have urged Israel to immediately cease all settlement expansions, including those in East Jerusalem.

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