Cheney to meet Abbas in bid to revive peace efforts
Monday, 24 March 2008
JERUSALEM, Mar 23 (AFP): US Vice President Dick Cheney was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Sunday as part of an Easter weekend bid to revive faltering Middle East peace efforts.
Cheney promised an "unshakeable" defence of Israel's security while assuring Palestinians of US "goodwill" as he arrived Saturday to renew Washington's efforts to secure a peace deal before President George W Bush's term ends in January 2009.
"We want to see a resolution to the conflict, an end to the terrorism that has caused so much grief to Israelis, and a new beginning for the Palestinian people," he said as he met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert shortly after arriving in Israel on the latest leg of a regional tour.
Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told the news agency the Western-backed president would discuss with Cheney "how to stop Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank," one of the main snags that have hampered the peace talks since they were revived four months ago.
Nimr Hamad, a senior aide to Abbas, warned that unless Washington pressured its Israeli ally to stop the settlements and its operations in the Palestinian territories, "there is no hope to reach an agreement in 2008" as desired by Bush.
Before travelling to the occupied West Bank for meetings with Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad Sunday, Cheney attended an early morning Easter mass and met senior Israeli officials in Jerusalem.
"We're obviously dedicated to doing all we can as an administration to try to move the peace process forward and also obviously actively involved in dealing with the threats we see emerging in the region," he said as he met President Shimon Peres early Sunday.
"Not only threats to Israel but threats to the United States as well," he said in an apparent reference to Israel's arch foe Iran, which along with Syria and Lebanon also topped the agenda of the vice president's talks in Jerusalem.
Peres warned that Israelis and Palestinians didn't "have too much time. But this is the finale, maybe, of a very long chapter in the Middle East and we have to try, all of us, to make the best of it.
Cheney promised an "unshakeable" defence of Israel's security while assuring Palestinians of US "goodwill" as he arrived Saturday to renew Washington's efforts to secure a peace deal before President George W Bush's term ends in January 2009.
"We want to see a resolution to the conflict, an end to the terrorism that has caused so much grief to Israelis, and a new beginning for the Palestinian people," he said as he met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert shortly after arriving in Israel on the latest leg of a regional tour.
Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told the news agency the Western-backed president would discuss with Cheney "how to stop Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank," one of the main snags that have hampered the peace talks since they were revived four months ago.
Nimr Hamad, a senior aide to Abbas, warned that unless Washington pressured its Israeli ally to stop the settlements and its operations in the Palestinian territories, "there is no hope to reach an agreement in 2008" as desired by Bush.
Before travelling to the occupied West Bank for meetings with Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad Sunday, Cheney attended an early morning Easter mass and met senior Israeli officials in Jerusalem.
"We're obviously dedicated to doing all we can as an administration to try to move the peace process forward and also obviously actively involved in dealing with the threats we see emerging in the region," he said as he met President Shimon Peres early Sunday.
"Not only threats to Israel but threats to the United States as well," he said in an apparent reference to Israel's arch foe Iran, which along with Syria and Lebanon also topped the agenda of the vice president's talks in Jerusalem.
Peres warned that Israelis and Palestinians didn't "have too much time. But this is the finale, maybe, of a very long chapter in the Middle East and we have to try, all of us, to make the best of it.