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 The accusations by Yasser Abed Rabbo, who joined Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry last week, further clouded hopes of achieving a
negotiated accord by an April target date.
Kerry, who is expected to return to the region late this week,
presented both sides with suggestions on Thursday about how Israel
might fend off future threats from a Palestinian state envisaged in
West Bank land it now occupies.
Israel has long demanded that under any eventual accord it retain
swathes of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as well as military
control of the territory's eastern Jordan Valley — effectively, the
prospective Palestine's border with Jordan.
But Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio that Kerry had plunged
the process into crisis by seeking to "appease Israel through
agreeing to its expansion demands in the (Jordan) Valley under the
pretext of security."
U.S. acquiescence to Israel's security demands was aimed at
"silencing the Israelis over the deal with Iran and achieving a fake
progress in the Palestinian-Israeli track at our expense", he said.
Abed Rabbo was referring to the November 24 interim accord reached
in Geneva between world powers and Iran, whereby it agreed to some
curbs on its disputed nuclear program in exchange for the easing of
international sanctions.
Dan Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said on Monday there was
no quid pro quo between the Iran and Palestine talks.
"These two issues concern both Israel's security and our security
and the interests of all the Middle East, that it be a more quiet
and stable region. But we do not see any linkage in which we seek to
give on one issue and receive on the other," Shapiro told Israel's
Army Radio.
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STRAINED TIES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially condemned Geneva
as an "historic mistake" that risked helping Iran's limping economy,
while leaving it with the means to make a nuclear bomb. Iran says
its nuclear drive is peaceful.
The Geneva deal further strained the Netanyahu government's ties
with the Obama administration, which is mindful of support for the
Jewish state in the U.S. Congress, though Netanyahu struck a more
conciliatory tone last week.
Israel has not commented on the U.S. proposals but cabinet minister
Yaakov Peri said on Sunday the government had not yet agreed to
them.
Amid deep Palestinian pessimism over prospects for a deal, many
Israelis also question whether Abbas would be able to keep his armed
Islamist Hamas rivals, who rule the Gaza Strip and spurn coexistence
with the Jewish state, to an eventual accord.
Shapiro said Gaza's government would have to change for Palestinian
statehood to be fully realized.
"We are talking about two states for two peoples. The Palestinian
state will also include Gaza. But there has to be a change to the
regime there. That is clear."
(Writing by Dan Williams, editing by Jeffrey Heller and Jon Boyle)
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