Israel 1967 Borders Are Central in Mideast Talks Restart Effort

[Purveyor]

President Barack Obama’s proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by starting with the 1967 borders will likely be adopted by the international group trying to find a peace agreement.

The meeting today in Washington by the “Quartet” -- the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia -- has taken on added urgency as Palestinians plan to ask the UN to recognize their state in a September vote. Israel and the U.S. oppose the move, which would raise political and legal questions.

The French foreign ministry said the Quartet meeting represents “one of the last chances to lay the necessary groundwork to resume negotiations and avoid a diplomatic confrontation in September,” according to a statement released Friday.

“They want to restart negotiations on the basis of Obama’s speech and the 1967 borders and use that as a way to convince the Palestinians not to go to the UN in September,” said Marwan Muasher, a former foreign minister of Jordan and vice-president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “The chances of that are very slim,” Muasher said in a telephone interview.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/israel-1967-borders-are-central-in-mideast-talks-restart-effort.html

[harun]

1. Palestinians need to work with the U.N. Dealing with the U.S. is a dead-end.