Hillary Clinton threw herself into the turmoil of the Middle East crisis yesterday by backing the creation of a Palestinian state despite opposition from the incoming Israeli Government.
The US Secretary of State also dispatched high-level envoys to Syria to discern the opportunities for regional talks.
Mrs Clinton urged continued dialogue with the Palestinian Authority to create an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “We happen to believe that moving towards a two-state solution is in Israel’s best interests,” she said. The new Administration of President Obama would be vigorously engaged in pursuing that goal, she said.
Mrs Clinton will be dealing with Binyamin Netanyahu, the right-wing Likud party leader who has refused to endorse the idea of a two-state solution and openly rejected the last round of peace talks initiated by the Bush Government. Mr Netanyahu, who is forming a far-right government, was elusive about his intentions after meeting Mrs Clinton. “Our shared goal is the need for creative thinking to move forward and out of the maze,” he said.
An aide to Mr Netanyahu told the Ynet news website before the meeting: “He will tell her that, while he does not favour diplomatic stalemate, he will not commit to the Annapolis process and the two-state principle.”
Mr Netanyahu said that he had raised what he considered to be Israel’s most serious threat, Iran, in the discussions. He and others on the Right warn that a Palestinian state could pose a threat to Israeli security, pointing to the example of Gaza, which Israel left in 2005 but whose Islamist rulers, Hamas — backed by Tehran — continue to fire rockets at Israel. Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, has said that it will not halt its attacks until the Jewish state ends a blockade that has crippled the coastal strip. Many Palestinians are also losing hope in a two-state solution, pointing to the relentless expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
A report this week by Peace Now, the leading Israeli anti-settlement group, said that the Israeli Housing Ministry had plans to build 73,000 more housing units in land that Israel conquered in the 1967 war. This would double the number of settlers and seriously impede any plans for an independent Palestinian state. Mr Netanyahu has said that he would not freeze settlement expansion, and would offer only an “economic peace” to the Palestinians, with Israeli forces retaining security control of much of their land.
To deflect US pressure on him, Mr Netanyahu is widely expected to focus on talks with Syria, which Washington wants to detach from its main regional ally Iran — now believed by US military chiefs to have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.
A day after Mrs Clinton gave her Syrian counterpart a surprise handshake at the Gaza donors conference in Egypt, she announced that she was dispatching two senior envoys to Damascus for preliminary conversations, reversing years of US isolation under President Bush, who labelled Syria part of his “Axis of Evil”.
“We have no way to predict what the future with our relations concerning Syria might be,” Mrs Clinton said. The two envoys will be Jeffrey Feltman, acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and Dan Shapiro, of the National Security Council.
In a sign that Mrs Clinton may be starting to breathe life into a more regional approach to the challenge of Iran, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi Foreign Minister, urged a meeting of the Arab League to consider seriously ways of confronting Iran as it develops its nuclear capabilities. Many Gulf states are wary of Iran’s spreading influence and the power that it exerts over Arab militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, as well as Syria. “In order to cement Arab reconciliation we need a common vision for issues that concern Arab security and deal with the Iranian challenge,” including its nuclear drive, the prince said.
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