PALESTINIAN PRIME minister Salam Fayyad has warned that a “moment of reckoning” is approaching as Israel and the Palestinian Authority prepare to embark this week on their first direct negotiations for 20 months.
Setting out his plans to build the institutions and framework of a Palestinian state – which the US wants complete in 12 months – Mr Fayyad said the talks “can and must” succeed, or the chances of a two-state solution would fade.
“Every day that this conflict is not resolved, there are more facts on the ground that make a two-state solution less likely,” he told a press conference in Ramallah yesterday. The international community had a vested interest, he added. “It has invested heavily in this – not only economically, but morally and politically.”
Talks between Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, to be hosted in Washington by President Barack Obama, are scheduled for Thursday following a dinner to be attended by King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Tony Blair, the envoy of the Middle East Quartet.
Expectations of a successful outcome are low among both Israelis and Palestinians, despite the US setting a 12-month deadline for a comprehensive agreement covering all issues, including borders, refugees and the future of Jerusalem, which both sides want as their capital.
Mr Fayyad expressed scepticism about Mr Netanyahu’s commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state on terms which the Palestinians could accept.
“What kind of state does Mr Netanyahu have in mind when he says ‘Palestinian state’?” Mr Fayyad asked.
“I believe, without wishing to prejudge what will happen in the next few days, the next few weeks, [that] we are approaching that moment of reckoning.”
The authority issued a report, optimistically entitled Home Stretch to Freedom, detailing its achievements over the past year in implementing measures designed to prepare for statehood and setting out detailed targets for the next 12 months.
These include strengthening the justice system, building prisons, reinforcing anti-corruption measures, modernising health and education provision, empowering women and reconstructing or building airports in the West Bank and Gaza.
However, Mr Fayyad added, a Palestinian state depended on a political process “producing what is required – namely ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967. We will have dealt with scepticism that the Palestinian people are capable of governing themselves. We will be ready to take care of the needs of our people when the occupation comes to an end.”
He would not be drawn on whether the Palestinians would unilaterally declare a state if political negotiations failed. "I'm not ready to speculate what will happen if it doesn't work – because it can." – ( Guardianservice)