Clinton-Fayyad Talks Yield Promise, No Results

Tuesday July 17, 2012 14:07 by Craig Harrington - IMEMC & Agencies

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayyad in Jerusalem. This after meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on July 6th.

Prime Minister Fayyad with Secretary Clinton in Jerusalem

The planned meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian Prime Minster Salem Fayyad ended Tuesday morning without concrete results. The Secretary promised to continue working with Israel to convince them to bolster the Palestinian Authority in coming years, but no agreements are currently in the making, reports Ma’an News Agency.

The meeting between Clinton and Fayyad comes just ten days after the Secretary met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris. Multiple news agencies have reported little differentiation between the talking points. The meeting in Jerusalem was meant to reinforce the agenda of the PA with the State Department in Washington. It also served to vet any policy conclusions between the United States and Israel – Secretary Clinton spent much of the previous two days in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

One point that did resonate in her meeting with PM Fayyad was the Secretary’s commitment to playing a part in restarting stalled negotiations between Israel and Palestine. The two governments have not had substantive progress in peace and reconciliation since Netanyahu walked away from negotiations in 2010. Both President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad have called on Israel to return to negotiations but the Netanyahu government refuses to discuss the future of a Palestinian state without severe conditional restrictions.

Despite Secretary Clinton’s professed concern for establishing a procedure for peace many doubt the American commitment to Palestine’s future. A source quoted by Ma’an News stated, ‘there is no benefit to meeting with the American administration due to their biased position against the Palestinian people and its leadership’.

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