Palestinian negotiators Quray, Urayqat voice disappointment with talks in US

Excerpt from report by London-based independent newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi website on 7 August

[Report by Bassam Badarin in Amman: "Quray and Urayqat Returned From Washington Disappointed: United States Dropped Our Issue From its Calculations and Asked us To Avoid Livni so That She Does Not Lose"]

Ahmad Quray, the prominent Palestinian negotiator and leader, has talked about a big disappointment he and Dr Sa'ib Urayqat felt after listening to a group of prominent American officials and asserted he heard a clear and firm American message pointing out that the Palestinian issue, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the Palestinian state plan had stopped being at all among the US administration's priorities. Both Quray and Urayqat expressed feelings of profound frustration following their recent exploratory visit to the United States as the two men returned to Amman on Tuesday night on their way back to Ramallah and put on record the impressions they concluded at private meetings they had with Jordanian and Palestinian political figures in Amman.

A Jordanian source which listened to Quray directly cited the latter as saying that the US administration spelled out to him clearly and without ambiguity a series of foreign policy priorities at this stage which did not include the Palestinian dossier. Quray said the Americans' priorities as we understood them are exclusively Iraq, the Iranian dossier, and Afghanistan and added: "We were told your dossiers are not anymore among our priorities and you have to manage on your own."

Urayqat is supposed to prepare within hours a detailed report to President Mahmud Abbas's office on the failed visit he and Quray made to Washington in an attempt to revive its interest in the Palestinian issue. Quray was cited as saying that officials in Washington told him clearly that the administration had stopped being concerned at all with the Palestinian [National] Authority or its problems or even with the struggle between Fatah and Hamas or the negotiations. Quray and Urayqat were also advised at the US State Department that the Palestinians should manage their affairs in cooperation with the Arab countries.

According to Quray's explanations and comments, the Americans refused to energize their coordination so as to resume the negotiations and also refused to intervene with any pressure on Ehud Olmert for fear of hastening his downfall and pointed out that the question of establishing a Palestinian state had stopped being a priority despite the so-called "Bush vision." Quray concluded by saying there was no hope of any wagering on the US administration without ruling out a deliberate American move to ignore the Palestinians so as to consolidate facts that precede a still unknown scenario.

Quray and Urayqat listened to another American advice asking them to avoid pressuring Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni because she would not respond at all at this stage. The Americans said Livni is a rising figure and a candidate to occupy Olmert's position and she is not in a position that allows her to make even moderate statements about peace and negotiations because any remark outside the Israeli context now will cause her to lose and therefore the Americans advised Quray not to try with Livni because she would not respond.

Urayqat and Quray presented very disappointing observations during their stopover in Amman on their way back from a trip to Washington which Urayqat said failed completely to determine any positive American stand. Palestinian observers believe the bad results the two officials received from Washington would deepen the crisis of President Abbas who is coming under heavy pressures from inside the Authority and Fatah cadres aimed at stopping the wagering on the negotiations options. [Passage omitted on disagreements inside Fatah over policies and holding the movement's conference]

Source: Al-Quds al-Arabi website, London, in Arabic 7 Aug 08