'No peace deal this year'
2008-10-28 07:34
Ramat Gan - Israel and the
Palestinians will not be able to reach a peace agreement this
year, the Palestinian chief negotiator in US-sponsored peace
talks with the Jewish state said on Monday.
"I don't think that we will be able to reach an agreement
this year," Ahmed Qurie told a group of former Israeli security
officials at a conference near Tel Aviv on Israeli-Palestinian
peacemaking.
Washington launched the latest peace drive at a conference
in Annapolis, Maryland, last year with the hope of shepherding
Israel and the Palestinians towards a peace deal before
President George W Bush leaves office in January.
But Israel's failure to halt Jewish settlement in the
occupied West Bank, divisions among Palestinians and political
instability in Israel have made the prospects of meeting
Washington's deadline for a deal ever more elusive.
"The process is difficult and the political situation on
both sides is difficult," said Qurie, a former prime minister,
referring to strife between the Palestinian factions Fatah and
Hamas and to a snap parliamentary election in Israel.
White House spokesperson Dana Perino told reporters on Monday
Bush remained committed to the process started at Annapolis.
"I think that what the president wants to do is continue to
try to work with them. No doubt we have an uphill climb, but
they have always had an uphill climb in the Middle East," Perino
said.
On the Palestinian side, President Mahmoud Abbas's peace
efforts have been made more difficult by Hamas's control of the
Gaza Strip which it seized from forces loyal to his Fatah
movement a year ago.
Egypt will try to heal the rift between the rival factions
at a summit in Cairo on November 5. Hamas is opposed to Abbas's
peace talks with Israel but in June the Islamist group agreed to
a six-month ceasefire with the Jewish state.
In Israel, political parties braced for a parliamentary
election on Monday after Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni
failed to cobble together a coalition government. She succeeded
scandal-hit Ehud Olmert as Kadima party head last month.