Region | Palestinian Territories
Few hopes for Palestine peace
As the United States renews its peace efforts on Wednesday with both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, officials from the two sides as well as analysts seemed sceptical of any possible achievement this year.
- By Jumana Al Tamimi, Associate Editor
- Published: 00:02 July 31, 2008
Dubai: As the United States renews its peace efforts on Wednesday with both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, officials from the two sides as well as analysts seemed sceptical of any possible achievement this year.
In the latest in a series this year, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and then sit down with her and former Palestinian prime minster Ahmad Qurei for an extended discussion, on Wednesday.
But remarks from both Olmert and Qurei about the possibility of a comprehensive deal this year painted a gloomy picture of a possible achievement.
Olmert was quoted on Monday as saying a full agreement that includes occupied Jerusalem was not within reach this year but it was possible that differences over borders and refugees could be bridged.
"No agreement without [occupied] Jerusalem," Qurei flatly told reporters after he met Rice at the State Department on Tuesday.
Analysts also have few expectations.
"Despite of the fact that the ongoing negotiations in Washington raise the expectations by some of the negotiators in both sides, the peace road looks very long," said Faris Breizat, Deputy Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, told Gulf News.
"Facts on the ground and the American failure to invest enough in time and effort for the talks to success give the impression that no advancement will be recorded," he said.
Thousands of people around the world gave negative ratings to all parties involved in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at present - the United States, the Arab countries, Palestine and Israel, which received the lowest ratings.
The poll, conducted by the WorldPublicOpinion.org, covered nearly 19,000 respondents in 18 countries, representing 59 per cent of the world population.
The countries surveyed included China, India, the United States, and Russia.
The poll showed strong global public support to the Palestinian cause, while more than half of the population of most of the big countries showed strong support for a robust UN role in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Poll support
According to the poll results, there is a substantial support for the presence of UN peacekeeping force to enforce a peace agreement once achieved between the Palestinians and Israelis.
"My opinion in sending a UN peacekeeping force [to the Palestinian territories] is something positive," said MP Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian information minister.
Since its establishment some 60 years ago, Israel has refused the principle of the exitance of a third party in its conflict with the Palestinian territories. Therefore, the idea of deploying UN troops between Palestinians and Israelis is categorically unacceptable.
"Israel doesn't want to have a watcher [on its actions]," said Palestinian journalist Khalil Assali. "Israel doesn't want the Palestinian issue to become an international one. This has been the case since the days of David Ben Gurion [the first Israeli prime minister and a major player in the foundation of Israel in 1948]."
"The issue is not the UN" as an organisation, said Ali Jarbawi, a Palestinian political scientist. "The issue is the commitment with the international legitimacy resolutions. Who is going to implement it," he said. "The world should."
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