Nieuwe vredesplannen verwacht van regering Obama, Kwartet en Arabische Liga

 

Er schijnen volop nieuwe ideeën te worden ontwikkeld wat betreft een oplossing van het Israelisch-Palestijns conflict. Het is moeilijk je voor te stellen dat er nog veel nieuws te bedenken is, en het probleem blijft mijns inziens dat bij beide partijen het basale vertrouwen ontbreekt, niet geheel ten onrechte, dat de ander zich aan z'n verplichtingen zal houden en te goeder trouw zal handelen.

 

Een van de grootste problemen zal zijn of je begint met kleine stapjes die dan, mits ze het gewenste resultaat opleveren, kunnen uitmonden in een Palestijnse staat (Israels positie) of dat je begint met het bereiken van een principe overeenkomst waarin alle lastige zaken worden geregeld (het Annapolis proces). Mij lijkt meer te zeggen voor het eerste; immers, pas als er weer enig vertrouwen is, is men bereid de zeer vergaande concessies te doen die nodig zijn voor een tweestatenoplossing. De stapjes moeten dan wel groot genoeg zijn om dat vertrouwen te kweken, en wat voor Israel al heel wat is, stelt volgens de Palestijnen nog niets voor, dus dat zal knap lastig worden. Ondertussen is er nog het probleem van Hamas, dat helemaal geen vrede wil, en de nieuwe regering in Israel lijkt minder bereid tot vertrouwenwekkende maatregelen dan de vorige, dus Obama en het kwartet hebben nog wat te doen.

 

RP

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Obama administration, quartet, are developing new Middle East Peace Plan

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/05/obama-administration-quartet-are.html

Last update - 10:55 06/05/2009
Blair: New Mideast peace plan to be unveiled in 5-6 weeks
By The Associated Press

 

 

International envoy Tony Blair says the U.S.-led Quartet of Mideast mediators is expected to unveil a new strategy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in five to six weeks.

 

Blair told Palestinian reporters Wednesday that the plan is being worked on at the highest levels of the Obama administration.

 

"We're about to get a new framework," Blair said Tuesday evening, adding that he did not know the details. "The reason I say people should be more hopeful, is that this is a framework that is being worked on at the highest level in the American administration, (and) in the rest of the international community."

 

The Obama administration has promised to work for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. It has portrayed a two-state solution as the only way to solve the Mideast conflict and defined it as a U.S. national interest.

 

President Barack Obama is holding separate meetings at the White House this month with the Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to hear their views.

 

Once those meetings are over, the Quartet is to convene in Washington to
discuss and present the new strategy, Blair said. The Quartet includes the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. "I think that within the next five to six weeks, you will have a very clear picture of what the plan is," Blair said.

 

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Report: A new Arab peace plan without Right of Return

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/05/report-new-arab-peace-plan-without.html

This would be a welcome plan, but who is "Jordan's King Hussein II"??

'Arab world formulating new peace plan'

May. 6, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

A group of Arab leaders is formulating a new peace offer, more detailed than the original Arab Initiative, which will include a proposal for resolving the two thorniest final-status issues in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Jerusalem and the refugee problem, the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Wednesday. According to the report, which relied on Palestinian sources, the new initiative is being led by Jordan's King Hussein II at the behest of US President Barack Obama.

The offer will reportedly call for the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the Old City designated an "international zone." The question of the borders will be resolved with land swaps.

Some of the descendants of Palestinian refugees from Israel's War of Independence in 1948 will reportedly be allowed a Right of Return to the Palestinian state, while others will be naturalized in their countries of residence in the Arab world.

According to the report, the idea of a revised Arab peace plan emerged during Abdullah's meeting with Obama in Washington last month. During the meeting, the report said, the US president asked his guest to formulate a new offer that would elucidate some of the issues that remain vague in the original initiative. Upon returning to Amman, Abdullah immediately took off for Riyadh in order to discuss the US request with his Saudi counterpart.

On Sunday, the report said, Abdullah met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and filled him in on the details. On Monday he did the same with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.

Palestinian sources quoted by the report said that the Obama had requested that the plan outline a "timetable for normalization and the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and the Arab world, which will encourage Israel to employ the necessary means in order to create a demilitarized Palestinian state."

The revised initiative, the sources said, "will allow the Israeli flag to billow in all the capitals of the Arab world, while the Palestinian flag is raised in the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, which will be the capital of the Palestinian state."

The UN banner will fly over the holy cites of the Old City of Jerusalem, the sources were quoted as saying.

Abdullah is set to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday and Abbas on Thursday.

The Palestinian sources said that the new initiative concedes that an influx of refugees and their descendants into Israel was broadly perceived as an existential threat to the Jewish state. The refugees "cannot return to the occupied Palestinian territories of 1948," they said, "for, according to the Americans' point of view, this would pose a danger for Israel's future."

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