Abbas Warns World of Quartet Failure
According to Al-Arabiya News Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas (Abu Mazen) has warned the Quartet of Middle East Peace negotiators that all options will be on the table if they fail to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table by January 26th.
January 26th is the deadline that the Quartet gave to both parties to submit their own proposals on territory and security. The Israelis are refusing to submit any proposals until the Palestinians meet the first half of the Quartet’s plan which is to have a preparatory meeting to determine what should be included in the proposals. The Palestinians have submitted their proposals on territory but are refusing to meet with the Israelis.
Abbas claims that he rejects any type of violence, but he said only that he does not expect there to be any in the advent that there are no negotiations.
“If nothing happens, then all options are open to us, and of course there are people who say there will be a third intifada, but I say that is unlikely and I do not accept it,” he said.
The Palestinians have refused to talk to the Israeli for more than year. They say they will not agree to sit down again until Israel agrees to halt all construction west of the Green Line, the line that separated Israel and Jordan before the 1967 Middle East War. They also say they will not agree to negotiate unless Israel accepts that line as the basis for nay talks.
The Israelis say they are eager to negotiate with the Palestinians anytime and anywhere without any preconditions.
This year, Abbas took his case for Palestinian Statehood to the United nations unilaterally (in violation of previous agreements) but under pressure from the US and with their threat to Veto the measure, the Palestinians are unlikely to get a majority in the Security Council in support of their bid.
The last time talks deadlocked was in 2000 when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians a state of their own with East Jerusalem as its capital. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian President who preceeded Abbas, walked out and began a war of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks which claimed the lives of thousands of Israelis.
What do you think is the likelihood of the Palestinians getting a state in 2012?
