Jordan Times
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
'Resolving Mideast conflict
priority for regional peace'
JT and Agencies
His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday received a telephone call from US President
Barack Obama and discussed with him developments in the Middle East.
In their conversation, the two leaders focused on efforts being made to overcome
obstacles against launching serious and effective Palestinian-Israeli
negotiations in accordance with the two-state solution.
During the telephone call, King Abdullah underlined the important role of the US
in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is a priority so as to
attain comprehensive peace in the region.
His Majesty emphasised the need to intensify efforts to jump-start negotiations
that realise a tangible progress towards internationally accepted two-state
solution in line with a clear action plan and a specific time frame leading to
the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that lives side by side
with Israel in peace and security.
The two leaders also discussed means to develop bilateral ties in different
fields.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority will respond within a week to a proposal
made by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to push forward the Middle East
peace process, President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday, according to Agence
France-Presse.
“There is a proposal from Mr Mitchell... We have promised to examine this, to
discuss it with our brothers and friends and then give an answer within a week
from today,” Abbas said after talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel.
After a round of shuttle diplomacy earlier in January, meeting Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas, Mitchell put forward a plan to relaunch
peace talks.
According to a Palestinian official, the plan calls on Israel to loosen its hold
on some Palestinian-controlled areas, release a number of prisoners and ease a
virtual blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The initiative was aimed at “creating an atmosphere” for the relaunch of peace
talks suspended more than a year ago, the official said on condition of
anonymity.
The Palestinian Authority has refused to negotiate with Israel without a
complete halt to settlement building in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Abbas has said Israel’s partial settlement freeze, which excludes building in
occupied Arab East Jerusalem and the construction of public buildings, was
insufficient.
Reprimand
The senior Israeli field officer in the Gaza war has been reprimanded over
artillery shelling in a heavily populated area that hit a United Nations
compound during the fighting, Reuters reported from Jerusalem, citing military
officials.
The officer, Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg, still heads Israel’s Gaza
division, one official said.
Colonel Ilan Malka, an infantry brigade commander also disciplined over the
incident, now runs military operations in the West Bank.
The United Nations has said some of the shells that damaged a UN Relief and
Works Agency (UNRWA) compound on January 15, 2009 contained incendiary white
phosphorus, whose use, condemned by human rights groups, has been called legal
by Israel.
Israel referred to disciplinary action against two senior officers, but did not
name them, in a response it submitted on Friday to a UN report accusing Israeli
forces and Palestinian fighters in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip of war crimes. The
military later identified the two officers as Eisenberg and Malka.
Referring to the UNRWA incident, the Israeli document said several artillery
shells were fired “in violation of the rules of engagement prohibiting use of
such artillery near populated areas”.
“Based on these findings, the commander of the southern command disciplined a
brigadier-general and a colonel for exceeding their authority in a manner that
jeopardised the lives of others,” it said.
The international convention on weapons prohibits the use of incendiary weapons
against civilians and their use against military targets within concentrations
of civilians, except when the targets are clearly separated from civilians and
all precautions are taken to avoid civilian casualties.
Israel has paid the United Nations $10.5 million for damage to UN property
during the offensive Israeli forces launched in the Gaza Strip in December 2008
with the declared aim of curbing cross-border rocket attacks.
Israeli officials have called the damage to UN facilities unintentional, saying
troops had responded to Palestinian fire.
Israeli forces killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including civilians and
Hamas fighters, in the 22-day war. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were
killed.
Israel had boycotted the UN investigation led by South African jurist Richard
Goldstone and called his report, issued in September, unbalanced.
But it issued its “Gaza Operation Investigations: An Update” document on Friday,
facing a threat by Goldstone to refer war crimes suspicions to an international
court unless Israel and the Palestinians launched investigations.
“Israel does not need any admonition from the international community,” Deputy
Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Reuters on Monday.
“We keep our high standards on morality, and the fact that we took disciplinary
action against very high and senior officers is just the proof,” he said,
speaking in English.
The Israeli report to the United Nations said the military had launched 36
criminal investigations into the conduct of Israeli forces, resulting so far in
one conviction. That soldier was jailed for stealing a credit card from a
Palestinian home.
“The military advocate-general has exercised his discretion to close seven
criminal investigations without charges because the complainants refused to give
testimony and/or there was insufficient evidence of a criminal violation,” the
document said.
“The remaining 28 investigations are ongoing.”