Arab League set to back Abbas over peace talks

Arab leaders are expected to back a Palestinian decision to quit US-backed negotiations today unless a US proposal to slow construction is accepted.

TEL AVIV // Arab leaders meeting in Libya today are expected to endorse the Palestinian leadership's decision to quit US-backed peace talks with Israel unless a partial freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank is renewed.

Despite the anticipated support from the 22-member Arab League, signs emerged yesterday that the Palestinians and Israel may be approaching a deal on the settlements dispute that could keep talks from collapsing.

Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian negotiator, was quoted yesterday by the Associated Press as saying the Palestinians had accepted a US proposal calling on Israel to extend the slowdown for two months.

Mr Shaath said that the period would be used to discuss the issue of the future Palestinian state's borders. He did not provide any further details.

The report also said that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has sent out diplomatic feelers asking the Arab League to delay its vote this weekend to allow more time to iron out an agreement.

An official endorsement by the Arab League of the Palestinian leadership's stance would be a setback for the intensive US efforts in recent weeks to clinch a compromise between the two sides.

Washington last month launched the first direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians following a 20-month hiatus, and it has been mediating the discussions.

Last Saturday, the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization resolved to back Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, in his threat to quit the peace process unless Israel renewed a 10-month moratorium on new construction projects in settlements, which expired last month.

The predominantly pro-settler government of Mr Netanyahu has so far rebuffed the demand.

Mr Abbas has said he will decide whether to leave the talks after consulting with the Arab League’s Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, which oversees the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will head the UAE delegation to the Arab League meeting, which is being held in the Libyan city of Sirte. He will be joined by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the foreign minister, as well as Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, state minister for foreign affairs, and six other senior UAE officials.

Fearing a blow to negotiations, Washington has stepped up its efforts to press Arab foreign ministers to back the peace process.

“What we want out of the Arab League is continued support for direct negotiations that we have just launched,” Philip Crowley, the US state department spokesman, told reporters late Wednesday in Washington.

Mr Crowley added that Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, had spoken with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh by phone on Monday, and that Mideast envoy George Mitchell has been engaged in phone discussions with regional leaders on the issue.

Yaron Ezrahi, a political analyst at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said the Arab League would most likely back Mr Abbas’ stance but leave the door open for negotiations to eventually resume.

“They will come up with a formula that says that unless a settlement agreement is reached, they are against the talks,” he said. “But what constitutes an agreement will be left sufficiently ambiguous to allow for some flexibility on all sides.”

Despite Israel’s public rejection of extending the freeze, Mr Netanyahu seems to be making a bid to persuade his hard-line coalition partners to agree to a prolonging of the moratorium for several more months.

In a controversial move that has drawn condemnation from the only centrist party in the ruling coalition and from Israel’s Palestinian citizens, Mr Netanyahu yesterday agreed to support legislation requiring non-Jews wanting to become citizens to pledge loyalty to Israel as a “Jewish state”.

The proposal, if approved by the government on Sunday, would mostly hurt Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who are seeking to marry Israel’s Palestinian citizens but would balk at taking such an oath.

Analysts said the move seemed to be part of a deal between Mr Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, the ultra-nationalist foreign minister, whose party has pushed for the legislation. They said Mr Lieberman, whose party is the second-biggest in the coalition, may now be persuaded along with other pro-settler coalition partners to reverse his opposition to a freeze.

The Israeli premier may be pushing for a moratorium extension amid media reports that Barack Obama, the US president, had sent him a letter offering a package of incentives including security guarantees if he continues the building halt for another two months.

Such a period, analysts said, would allow Mr Obama to get past November’s midterm elections without a major crisis in the Middle East peace process. The White House, however, has denied sending a letter to Mr Netanyahu that outlines such incentives.

Israeli media have reported that Mr Netanyahu has not been receptive to proposals made so far by Washington because he is seeking more incentives. Yediot Ahronoth, the country’s biggest newspaper, yesterday said that the prime minister asked Mr Obama to abide by commitments his predecessor in the White House made to Israel in 2004 on the issue of settlements.

Most importantly, the paper said, those commitments included an oral understanding that Israel had interpreted as a US pledge to support an Israeli annexation of large settlement blocs in the West Bank as part of any future peace agreement. Mr Obama’s administration has so far refused to be bound by those understandings.

The European Union, in a possible bid to upstage the US in its role of mediating the talks, is making its own efforts to return Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiations table.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, plans to host a summit in Paris on October 21 between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday. The report said that on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Spanish counterpart, Miguel Moratinos, are due to visit the region to arrange for the summit.