US convenes Palestinian, Israeli talks amid tension
Middle East Desk Report

JERUSALEM—A U.S. general on Friday gave Israel and the Palestinians his first assessment of where they were failing to meet peacemaking commitments, but Israel’s defense minister, under fire over settlements, did not attend.
U.S.-backed peace talks launched at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November have been bogged down by tensions over Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and an upsurge in violence between the two sides.
“We examined areas where the parties are not meeting their commitments and the reasons why, and explored ways to accelerate the process,” the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said after the two-hour meeting, chaired by General William Fraser.
Appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to oversee implementation of the long-stalled “road map” peace plan, Fraser has made no public statements about his secret assessment, described by sources as critical of Israel. “Our goal remains the fulfillment of the parties’ road map obligations,” the Consulate said.
Israel was bracing for strong U.S. criticism for not living up to its commitments under the 2003 road map. It announced plans earlier this week to push forward with building hundreds of new homes in a settlement north of Jerusalem. The road map calls on the Jewish state to remove outposts built without government authorization in the West Bank and to halt all settlement activity in the territory. It demands that the Palestinians crack down on militants.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad attended the trilateral meeting. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak sent a senior defense ministry strategist, Amos Gilad, in his place. Barak’s decision not to attend took some U.S. and Palestinian officials by surprise and could prove embarrassing. “All rumors about tensions are baseless,” Gilad said.
But an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Barak’s absence reflected his skepticism about peace negotiations he once described as a “fantasy.” “He didn’t feel like going to a meeting and getting scolded,” the official said.
The peace talks were suspended earlier this month by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over an Israeli offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in which more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed. Israel said it was targeting militants behind cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza, which Hamas seized in June after routing Abbas’s more secular Fatah forces.
The peace talks are expected to formally resume next week. Friday’s closed-door meeting with Fraser was the first since the Annapolis conference relaunched peace talks with the goal of trying to reach a statehood agreement before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office next January.
U.S. officials said ahead of Friday’s meeting that Washington was not satisfied with the pace at which Israel was moving to implement the road map. Rice described the expansion of settlement activity as “not consistent with Israeli obligations under the road map” and as “certainly not helpful for the peace process.”
Washington, in turn, believes the Palestinians need to do more to boost security and rein in militants, though U.S. officials have privately complained to Israel that its frequent raids in the West Bank were undermining those efforts.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak sent a senior defense ministry strategist, Amos Gilad, in his place. Barak’s decision not to attend took some U.S. and Palestinian officials by surprise and could prove embarrassing. “All rumors about tensions are baseless,” Gilad said.