The United States’ Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, said Thursday that the Obama administration has no intention of interfering in the contacts between Israeli parties centering on the formation of the new governing coalition.
A report in The Telegraph British newspaper last weekend quoted unnamed sources in Washington as saying that President Obama intends to pressure Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni into forming a joint “unity” coalition.
“The Obama administration has no interest whatsoever in exerting influence in favor of this or that coalition,” Mitchell said in a conference call with Jewish leaders in Washington.
Mitchell said that coalition building was an internal Israeli matter: “The Israelis elect their leaders just as the Americans did a short while ago,” he noted.
Regarding the growth of communities in Judea and Samaria, Mitchell said that although the issue was an important one, it is not the only one on the agenda. Mitchell said that the situation in the Middle East had changed since he wrote his report on the region in 2001. One of the most meaningful parameters that have changed, he explained, was the Iranian nuclear program. The envoy said that every single one of the Middle Eastern leaders whom he met with on his recent tour there voiced concern with the Iranian program.
Mitchell had some criticism of Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan for “economic peace” with the Arabs of Judea and Samaria. “One cannot talk about economic development on the Palestinian side when you are not moving forward with diplomatic moves at the same time,” he stated. Mitchell said that at every point in the negotiations, one has to have a picture of what the final status settlement will look like.
Mitchell will accompany the new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on her first visit to the Middle East in her new capacity. Clinton will participate in the summit of countries that contribute to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which will convene in Cairo on March 2.
President Shimon Peres met Friday with the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Sen. John Kerry. The senator is on a tour of the region, which includes stopovers in Lebanon, the PA, Gaza and Jordan.