Middle East Peace Talks Begin With Two Week Meeting Pledge
September 2, 2010 at 4:30 PM by AHN · Leave a Comment
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The first direct Middle East peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders has started after nearly two years in the US capital Washington.
The first round of talks lasted for four hours in which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for their courage and commitment to meet after every 14 days to reach a settlement within a year.
“I know the decision to sit at this table was not easy,” the American diplomat said.
At the start of the talks, Netanyahu urged Abbas to be prepared to first recognize Israel as a country of the Jewish people. It may be noted that Palestinians had not been considering it as a country of Jews because it fears that this could undermine Palestinian refugees’ right-of-return claims to Israel from where they were forced to leave after it was created in 1948.
Referring to recent Palestinian militant attacks on occupied West Bank settlers, Israeli leader called on to take measures to protect Israel’s security – a call Abbas agreed. He said, “We consider security as essential and vital both for us and for you, and we will not accept that anyone commits any act that would harm your security or ours.”
Abbas added that his government had already launched an investigation on the killing of four Israeli settlers on Tuesday.
Turning his attention on the settlement issue, Abbas urged the Israeli leadership to end all settlement activity and lift an embargo over the Gaza Strip, a strategic area, which Israel controls amid Hamas militant group’s fear.
The two Middle East leaders also discussed several issues like borders of a Palestinian state, fate of Jerusalem behind closed doors later.
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said that the first meeting between the two leaders in Clinton’s presence was productive, adding that Netanyahu-Abbas duo held second round of one-to-one meeting later during the day. The three again met in the final round where the Middle East leaders agreed to resume negotiations on September 14-15 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. They also agreed to meet after every two weeks to establish a lasting peace within a year.
