ME peace needs ‘painful concessions’: Cheney
Middle East Desk Report

RAMALLAH (West Bank)—A Mideast peace agreement will require “painful concessions” by Israelis and Palestinians who must work together to defeat those “committed to violence,” Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. After meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Cheney stressed the U.S. commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, saying it was “long overdue.”
“Achieving that vision will require tremendous effort at the negotiating table and painful concessions on both sides,” said Cheney, whose stop in Ramallah came just two months after President Bush’s trip to the West Bank. “It also will require a determination to keep those who are committed to violence and who refuse to accept the basic right of the other side to exist,” Cheney said.
Abbas, a moderate, controls the West Bank and is battling Hamas militants who have taken charge of the Gaza Strip from Abbas-allied forces and have bombarded southern Israel with rockets. “Terror and violence do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people,” Cheney said.
In their meeting, Abbas asked Cheney to help stop Israeli settlement expansion and military operations targeting militants, said Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide. Speaking at the news conference, Abbas thanked Cheney for U.S. support. But he also lashed out at Israel’s settlements and checkpoints, and called for an end to Israeli military operations.
“Peace and security can’t be achieved through settlement expansion and building barriers,” he said. To reach peace, Abbas said, “what is required is will, courage and strong support from the international community, especially the U.S.”
In his remarks, Cheney said, “A negotiated end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — one that addresses the legitimate national claims of both people — will have limitless value. Years of mistrust ad violence have achieved nothing, and the extremists who have stood in the way of a settlement have only caused further grief and suffering to the Palestinian and Israeli people.”
“No one,” he said, “deserves to go through live in a climate of fear of deprivation. ... That should not be and must not be the direction of events in this region.” Before the session, aides to Abbas said Abbas would tell Cheney there had been little progress in peace talks since the Palestinian leader and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to a resumption at a November conference hosted by President Bush in Maryland.
Cheney said “the future belongs to the advocates of peace and reconciliation.” He cited Bush as saying that “the establishment of the state of Palestinian is long overdue.”