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Palestine – Features

Us envoy in china for talks on nkorea nuclear deal

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US envoy Christopher Hill

Picture: (AFP/Frederic J. Brown)
US envoy Christopher Hill, seen here, held talks Saturday with his Chinese counterpart amid stepped up efforts to salvage a crumbling North Korean nuclear disarmament deal

 

A US embassy spokesman says US envoy Christopher Hill held talks today with his Chinese counterpart amid stepped up efforts to salvage a crumbling North Korean nuclear disarmament deal.

He says Hill briefed top nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei on the outcome of his discussions this week with North Korean officials on the faltering deal to halt the communist state’s nuclear ambitions.

The US diplomat Friday described as "very substantive" the talks during his visit to Pyongyang, but gave no further details, saying he
must first brief other parties to the six-nation agreement.

A dispute over inspections of the North’s nuclear facilities threatens to wreck last year’s agreement under which the North shut down its nuclear programme in return for fuel aid and its removal from a US terrorism blacklist.

The North now threatens an imminent restart of its plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon, an issue which Hill called a "great concern

The State Department said Friday In an indication of the challenges facing Hill and the other envoys, the North was still moving to restart the plant despite the envoy’s Pyongyang visit.

The North announced last month it had halted work in protest at Washington’s refusal to drop it from the US blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, as promised under the deal.

SAPA-AFP

 

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Goldstone lieberman doesnt want mideast peace process

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(source: HAARETZ)

The author of a damning report on Israel’s winter offensive against Hamas in Gaza, Richard Goldstone, has said that Foreign Minster Avigdor Lieberman does not want there to be an Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Goldstone, a South African Jurist, made the claim in a conference call
on Sunday with 150 U.S. rabbis from left-leaning organizations. He was speaking in reference to an Israeli assertion that the report would harm peace talks.

"That just is a shallow, I believe, false allegation," he said. "What peace process are they talking about? There isn’t one. The Israeli foreign minister doesn’t want one at all."

Lieberman, a right-winger, has drawn fire for criticizing Israel’s past efforts in seeking a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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Gaza must be rebuilt now we can wait no longer to restart the peace process

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The Human Suffering Demands Urgent Relief

By Jimmy Carter

(source:The Guardian, Saturday 19 December 2009)

It is generally recognised that the Middle East peace process is in the doldrums, almost moribund. Israeli settlement expansion within Palestine continues, and PLO leaders refuse to join in renewed peace talks without a settlement freeze, knowing that no Arab or Islamic nation will accept any comprehensive agreement while Israel retains control of East Jerusalem.

US objections have impeded Egyptian efforts to resolve differences between Hamas and Fatah that could lead to 2010 elections. With this stalemate, PLO leaders have decided that President Mahmoud Abbas will continue in power until elections can be held – a decision condemned by many Palestinians.

Read More »Gaza must be rebuilt now we can wait no longer to restart the peace process