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U.S.: Annapolis Understandings Are Non-Binding

(Ha'aretz) Barak Ravid, Akiva Eldar and Avi Issacharoff - In a Jerusalem meeting with Quartet envoys on Friday, U.S. special envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell's deputy, David Hale, said the negotiations after Annapolis and the understandings reached by Tzipi Livni and Ahmed Qureia, as well as Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas, would not be binding. The talks will be based on agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, including the Roadmap. Abbas never responded to Olmert's offer, but the Palestinians insisted that the negotiations resume from where they stopped during Olmert's term as prime minister. The U.S. apparently accepted Israel's position, which was to ignore everything that was not signed as part of an agreement. The talks will also be based on the Obama administration's two statements from the past year: President Obama's speech to the UN, which described the goal of a secure, Jewish state in Israel alongside a viable, independent Palestine; and Secretary of State Clinton's statement regarding a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with territory exchanges, combined with Israel's desire for a secure Jewish state that includes "recent developments," meaning the settlement blocs.
2010-03-09 08:31:27
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