Global Arab Network | Mitchell renews US support for 2-state solution

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Mitchell renews US support for 2-state solution

George Mitchell, U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East, met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday and reiterated that a two-state solution is the only viable answer to the Middle East conflict.

"The only viable resolution to this conflict is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states," Mitchell said after meeting Abbas.

"Israel and the Palestinians have a responsibility to meet their obligations under the roadmap. It is not just a responsibility, we believe it is in their interests as well."

The so-called "roadmap", which was agreed by the two sides in 2003, commits Israel to stop building the settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and the Palestinians to reject violence.

Constructive talks
A Palestinian senior official said that Abbas and Mitchell held "positive and constructive" talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

During the talks, Mitchell emphasized the U.S. administration's intentions to revive stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), added the official, Saeb Erekat, in a statement sent to the press.

President Barack Obama's administration expects Israel and the Palestinians to carry out their obligations under the Road Map peace plan, Erekat continued. "This is an important litmus test of fairness and balance in America's approach to Middle East peace," Erekat said, referring to the U.S.-backed plan.

Erekat stressed that the Road Map, which -- in its final phases-- envisions a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel, was "a framework already in place."

"While Palestinians have made significant progress in the areas of governance, finance and security sector reform in line with our Road Map obligations," Erekat said.

On Tuesday, Mitchell met Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu who has been rejecting Obama administration's calls for freezing Jewish settlement in the West Bank, casting doubts over the feasibility of Palestinian statehood's negotiations.

Hamas welcomes U.S. remarks
In Gaza, deposed Prime Minister of Hamas government Ismail Haneya told reporters on Wednesday that Mitchell's remarks that "which held Israel responsible for Gaza war and the expansion of settlement, showed that there had been a clear positive change in the U.S. position towards the Palestinians."

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who held talks in Cairo with Egypt's intelligence chief Omer Suleiman earlier on Tuesday welcomed any efforts that end the Israeli occupation and establish a statehood on the occupied territories and bring the Palestinian refugees back to their homes.

"Hamas movement won't be an obstacle before any serious movement that ends the occupation and establish a state with full sovereignty on the land, the border and the air," Mashaal told a news conference in Cairo on Tuesday.

Despite tension, close allies
Israel has rejected increasing U.S. calls to freeze settlement activities in the West Bank, including the natural growth of the settlement blocs. Erekat accused Israel of evading its first obligation under the road map, "a comprehensive settlement freeze."

Netanyahu has, so far, said he is only ready to hold talks with Abbas on economic, security and political issues.

Palestinians have rejected his proposed shift of focus away from territorial issues.

On Monday, Netanyahu held talks by phone with Obama that the White House described as constructive.

Tensions have jumped to levels unseen in nearly two decades as Obama's administration has repeatedly called for a complete halt to Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and said the creation of a Palestinian state is the only "viable" solution to the conflict.

Washington's blunt talk has raised fears in Israel that its main ally may reduce its support for the Jewish state as it seeks to improve relations with the Muslim world.

In his speech last week in Cairo, Obama reiterated Washington's "unbreakable" bond with Israel but also called the Palestinian situation "intolerable" and repeated his call for a halt to Jewish settlement.

Echoing him, Mitchell said on Tuesday US commitment to Israeli security remained "unshakeable" and that "the United States and Israel are and will remain close allies and friends."

Obama's administration has repeatedly called for a complete halt to all settlement activity, including building to accommodate population growth.

Netanyahu's largely right-wing government vigorously opposes any freeze and would probably collapse if the premier caved in to Washington's demands, analysts in Israel say.

However, there is widespread speculation in Israel that Netanyahu could back moves to create a separate Palestinian state when he outlines his policy on relations with the Palestinians in a speech on Sunday.

Ehud Barak, the defence minister in Netanyahu's coalition government, urged the prime minister to accept the principle of a Palestinian state.

"The current government was formed with the commitment to respect the deals reached by preceding governments," the head of the centre-left Labour party told public radio.

"The roadmap which clearly states that the conflict must be resolved on the principle of two states for two peoples."

Carter in Syria
Former US president Jimmy Carter held talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Wednesday ahead of a first visit to Damascus by US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell.

The two men agreed on the "need to remove all obstacles to Syrian-US relations," the official Syrian Arab News Agency said.
Carter also discussed with Muallem Sunday's parliamentary election in Lebanon in which a Syrian-backed bloc led by Shiite militant group Hezbollah was defeated by a Western-backed coalition.

Muallem said he hoped to see a "spirit of entente" between the rival parties, SANA said.
The two men also discussed the situation in the Palestinian territories where the Gaza Strip remains under a crippling Israeli blockade and the territory's Islamist rulers Hamas are still at loggerheads with Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas and his West Bank-based leadership.

'No other choice'
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Israel was bound to agree to a two-state solution in the Middle East because there is "no other choice," during a television interview to air later on Wednesday.

"Israel will agree to a two-state solution because it has no other choice," he told Egyptian television in an interview, trails for which were broadcast ahead of the programme.

"I told (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu there is no choice, the two-state solution is bound to happen," he said, adding that solving the Palestinian question was key to resolving other conflicts in the region.

"Any peace process for the Palestinian question means peace and stability for the entire region," he said. (Xinhua, AFP, AP)

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