RAMALLAH, November 5, 2009 (WAFA)- Fateh’s Foreign Relations Commissioner, Nabil Sha’ath, said, today, we are currently in a political dilemma resulting mainly from the Israeli stances, but directly from the American stance, which held a major recoil regarding the resumption of the Peace Process.
He clarified, in a press conference held in Ramallah, that US President Barack Obama’s stances toward the Palestinian question and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict were clearly based on two issues: the establishment of a Palestinian state and a total halt of colonization, including in East Jerusalem and natural growth.
“Historically, he added, whenever there was an American president with somehow progressive stances, and a right-wing Israeli president, there would be an American-Israeli divergence of positions. It is possible that President Obama would pressurize Netanyahu to halt colonization, but this did not happen, probably due to problems he is facing at the congress.
Sha’ath stated that the preconditions set by Netanyahu make it impossible to go for final status negotiations, for the current Israeli stance does not contain any progress. Israel has set many preconditions that make it impossible to resume negotiations. “I do not want to stand on the verbal aspect of it, but “beginning” negotiations and “resuming” negotiations are two different concepts; when you resume, you start from where you had stopped, but when you begin, you start from zero,” which is unacceptable because Israel has many obligations which it abandoned, whereas “we committed to all our obligations.”
We do not set any preconditions, Sha’ath said, but we committed to our obligations under the Road Map, and will not resume negotiations without an Israeli commitment to its own obligations; the halt of colonization is inevitable, and Jerusalem and refugees are not to be excluded from the negotiations.
“It is obvious that the Elections Decree came to implement the Palestinian Basic Law,” Sha’ath stated. The elections will be held on January 25th, unless Hamas signs the Egyptian paper for national reconciliation. If it does, the elections will be held as stated in the paper, on June 26th. The elections will not be held if Gaza or Jerusalem were excluded from them.
“Hamas thought it could utilize the delay in goldstone I delaying the Egyptian paper, despite that we have rectified the Goldstone issue,” Sha’ath said.
The Goldstone report is to be discussed in the UN General Assembly, and the US are threatening to use the Veto right. If the US does not pressurize Israel to commit to its obligations, it leaves no options for Palestinians but two: going back to violence, or to the one state solution, already existing in Fateh’s political agenda.
