Powell hints at US moves if Palestinians seal truce

[papau]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3731708/
Powell hints at US moves if Palestinians seal truce
By Arshad Mohammed: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week privately made clear that if Palestinian militants struck a cease-fire Washington would be better able to press Israel to take reciprocal steps under a U.S.-backed peace plan, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said Powell had not made specific promises in talks on the matter with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman last week and the official stressed that a cease-fire had to be part of a broader Palestinian push to end attacks on Israelis.<snip>

The senior U.S. official stressed that Washington expected the Palestinian authority to start to take away the capacity of militant groups to launch attacks on Israel.<snip>

[papau]

1. Egyptian F M Maher will visit Israel Dec 22 for bilateral talks/other news

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3730645/ Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher will visit Israel Dec. 22 for bilateral talks, the first such trip since a Palestinian uprising began three years ago, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.<snip>

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3731554/ Palestinian truce talks resume but no progress By Nidal al-Mughrabi: Egyptian mediators resumed talks with Palestinian militant factions on Tuesday to steer them into a truce with Israel but their leaders refused to budge from conditions rejected by the Jewish state.<snip>

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3730372/ The U.S. State Department voiced support on Tuesday for the possibility of Israel closing Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip but said unilateral steps would not solve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute

Senior Israeli political sources said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told ministers ahead of a major policy speech on Thursday that Israel must be ready to quit Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.<snip>

Deepening doubt over whether Washington's plan could work, the political sources said Sharon had forecast moderate Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie's government would last only six months and then Israel would have to act alone.<snip>

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3730622/ -Israel's Sharon says Gaza settlements could go By Matthew Tostevin Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told ministers that Israel must be ready to quit Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, senior political sources said Tuesday. Sharon, for decades the champion of the settler movement, has been firming up hints that Israel will have to leave parts of Gaza and the West Bank whatever the fate of a struggling U.S.-backed plan for peace with the Palestinians.<snip>

[pinto]

2. see this thread for a related (?) story...especially concerning the Gaza.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=272910

[papau]

3. Thanks for the link - I hope there is movement toward peace.

:-)

[dudeness]

4. yes papau

peace must happen..sooner rather than later..but BOTH sides must compromise..

[regnaD kciN]

5. I'm losing count...

...is this the 658th time Powell has hinted at the U.S. putting pressure on Israel if the Palestinians did something the U.S. wanted? Or is it the 659th?

:eyes:

In any event, I see no signs that these hints are any more sincere than the previous 650-odd ones were. Powell can promise whatever he wants, but it matters little when hard-liners like Rumsfeld and Wolfowicz have the pResident's ear. And, with the 2004 election less than a year away, there's no way in...Crawford that Bush will do anything to alienate the Jewish vote.

[Resistance]

6. ya think there's a pattern here?