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Fri, Oct 01, 2010 | Jerusalem Post | By JPost Staff | CrethiPlethi

Egypt's FM Ahmad Aboel Gheit

Egyptian Foreign Minister Says Freeze is Not the Main Goal of Negotiations

On Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit criticized the Palestinian Authority for its “insistence” on a moratorium on building in the settlements.

In an interview with London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, Aboul Gheit said waiting for a renewed freeze will only complicate peace talks, and that the most important issue is borders. Aboul Gheit also hinted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does not think a settlement freeze is essential. [JPost, Oct 01, 2010]

Abbas has said he will take no final decision until the Arab League has discussed the issue. There were indications on Friday that the October 4 date for an Arab League consultation would be set back to October 8 at the request of U.S. ally Egypt. [CrethiPlethi.com, Oct 01, 2010]

Ahead of the Cairo meeting, Egypt’s foreign minister Aboel Gheit issued criticism of the Palestinian decision to make talks contingent on the freeze.

“Whoever offered the idea to freeze settlements as a main goal and priority didn’t see the real goal of the negotiations, which is to define borders,” Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the London-based Arab newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published Friday.

“Everyone involved should be working hard to define borders … and then we can start looking at other items on the agenda,” he said.

Gheit’s comments were meant as a boost for Abbas, who may want to choose to soften his demand for a continuation of the construction restrictions and no longer regard it as a condition of continuing the peace talks.

This could bring Abbas in a difficult situation, however, damaging his standing among Palestinians and giving momentum to the more radical elements among the Palestinians and the Middle East. Many of whom already see him as a puppet of the United States.

In his address at the General Debate of the 65th session of the UN’s General Assembly last week, Mr. Ahmed Aboel Gheit said that Israel’s failure to freeze the settlement construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory would cause the current direct negotiations to collapse. Such a freeze would be a major factor in determining Israel’s intention and level of commitment. (CrethiPlethi.com, Sept 25, 2010, New York)

Earlier this year during a press conference in Beirut, Egypt’s foreign minister said that Israel is an “enemy” (Ynetnews, 25 April 2010, Lebanon) and he said to the Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm that the Arab League will turn to the United Nations Security Council to declare an independent Palestinian state if peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians do not bear fruit by September based on UNSC resolution 1515, which calls for regional Middle East peace, based on the two-state solution. (al-Masry al-Youm, april 2010).

And also in April 2010, Abul Gheit, speaking to the London-based Arabic newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, criticized the United States for failing to advance the Middle East peace process and said that the conduct of Washington’s envoy to the region, George Mitchell, would not bring about peace between Israelis and Palestinians even 10 years from now. (Haaretz, april 07, 2010)