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US-Israeli-Palestinian Summit At UN In Question
By DAVID BEDEIN, Middle East Correspondent
Jerusalem – A crisis in the talks among Israelis, Americans and Palestinians has raised doubts about the possibility of holding a three-way summit meeting in New York in the course of the UN General Assembly next week.
A meeting that was held on Wednesday between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, ending without any progress having been made, even though the Prime Minister's Bureau reported that the atmosphere at the meeting was good.
The two parties disagreed over the agenda of the planned three-way summit meeting and about procedures that would be observed during negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and which would be announced at the summit meeting.
After the Israeli side voiced its disappointment over the package of normalization that the Americans achieved, Mitchell left yesterday for another quick round of talks in the Arab states in hope of being able to extract a few more good will gestures in exchange for a settlement construction freeze.
Meanwhile, the Israeli media is filled with stories behind the scenes that the Americans have accused Netanyahu of causing a crisis and charge that he complicated matters when he decided to permit the construction of 450 housing units in Judea and Samaria, prompting the Arab states and the Palestinians to impose tougher conditions.
Netanyahu said that he would leave for New York even if no three-way summit meeting were to be held. He defended his decision to delay his departure for New York and to be absent from the UN building during Obama's speech, explaining that he did not want to sit in the same room with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"From an historic perspective, it would be incorrect for me to be present in the hall beside the president of Iran," he said. "The Americans certainly understood my decision."
A meeting that was held on Wednesday between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, ending without any progress having been made, even though the Prime Minister's Bureau reported that the atmosphere at the meeting was good.
The two parties disagreed over the agenda of the planned three-way summit meeting and about procedures that would be observed during negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and which would be announced at the summit meeting.
After the Israeli side voiced its disappointment over the package of normalization that the Americans achieved, Mitchell left yesterday for another quick round of talks in the Arab states in hope of being able to extract a few more good will gestures in exchange for a settlement construction freeze.
Meanwhile, the Israeli media is filled with stories behind the scenes that the Americans have accused Netanyahu of causing a crisis and charge that he complicated matters when he decided to permit the construction of 450 housing units in Judea and Samaria, prompting the Arab states and the Palestinians to impose tougher conditions.
Netanyahu said that he would leave for New York even if no three-way summit meeting were to be held. He defended his decision to delay his departure for New York and to be absent from the UN building during Obama's speech, explaining that he did not want to sit in the same room with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"From an historic perspective, it would be incorrect for me to be present in the hall beside the president of Iran," he said. "The Americans certainly understood my decision."
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