A new round of Egyptian-Palestinian presidential talks took place Tuesday, Dina Ezzat reports "Hurdles" seems to be the most common word in the vocabulary of Palestinian officials nowadays. They talk about "hurdles" in the way of the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and "hurdles" in the way of Palestinian reconciliation. Speaking in Cairo Tuesday following talks with President Hosni Mubarak and his aides, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas added that "hurdles" are also in the way of securing international support for a UN Security Council resolution to support the right of Palestinians to have an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel since 1967. The idea of seeking UN Security Council recognition, with or without Israeli recognition, was proposed and adopted by an Arab League meeting last Thursday. It was qualified, however, by Israel, the US and the European Union as a "unilateral step" that would be rejected by the international community. In Cairo Tuesday Abbas was keen to disclaim association with unilateral plans. "This is about going to the UN Security Council, and this is certainly not unilateral," Abbas said. The Palestinian president said that pursuing UN Security Council support for the declaration of a Palestinian state is only an outcome of the obstacles that Israel has been putting in the way of the resumption of negotiations. "President Hosni Mubarak and I agreed this morning that there will be no resumption of negotiations until Israel freezes its illegal settlement activities in [the occupied] Palestinian territories," Abbas told reporters on Tuesday. Israeli officials have publicly and privately denied any intention to accommodate the international demand to apply a total freeze on all illegal settlement activities. On Tuesday, as Abbas and Mubarak were holding their talks, the Israeli minister of the interior issued an authorisation to build 900 new housing units in East Jerusalem, occupied during the 1967 war and annexed in 1980 to West Jerusalem upon a resolution by the Israeli Knesset. Israeli officials said this week that any declaration of an independent Palestinian state through any other means than negotiations with Israel would be considered a unilateral move and would prompt the Israeli government to retaliate by annexing West Bank territories on which Israeli settlements are built. Egyptian diplomats are also speaking of "hurdles". A Middle East peace process diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly that, "there seems to be no opening on any front. We are only faced with hurdles." According to this diplomat, Egypt is faced with "considerable difficulties" to convince Washington or other relevant world capitals to issue the Palestinians a letter of guarantee that their state would be ultimately built within the 1967 borders, a letter that might allow for the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in the absence of a settlements freeze by Israel. "The Americans tell us that they appreciate the concern but that they are finding it very difficult to convince [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu to bring settlement activities to a halt," the diplomat said. He added that Cairo is telling Washington that it is difficult to justify the resumption of negotiations without this halt. Hurdles might also fall in the way of a peace conference that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has delegated French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to promote in the region. According to statements made by Abbas in Cairo Tuesday, in the absence of a clear understanding of what this French-promoted conference would deliver it would be difficult to agree on Palestinian participation. "We feel we are in a very difficult position. Very," Abbas said following his talks with Mubarak. "Nothing seems to be moving forward and the international community is not moving at all." Because of all these hurdles, the Palestinian president added, he thought it almost pointless for him to stay as head of the Palestinian Authority. On Tuesday, members of the Fatah Movement -- led by Abbas -- in the Palestine Liberation Organisation said they would automatically extend the term of Abbas which expired at the end of this year. However, Abbas himself said that if everything remains on hold come January he would not want to keep his post. "I would either have something to do to serve my people or I would go," he said. Egyptian officials say it would be wrong for Abbas to step down. "This could lead to the beginning of the end of the Palestinian Authority, and another hurdle on the road towards the establishment of the independent Palestinian state," one Egyptian diplomat said. Egyptian and Palestinian sources say Mubarak is pressing Abbas to stay the course, no matter the difficulties ahead.
