AMMAN, Jordan, March 12 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for March 12:
Palestine's al-Quds said Monday the meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert fell short of achieving substantial progress that could restart the peace process. The daily added in its editorial it was obvious from the beginning that Israel will continue setting preconditions, and did so by insisting on the release of abducted Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian militants last year, before recognizing any Palestinian rights. Unfortunately, the meeting added nothing new, the Jerusalem-based paper said. The daily which is close to Fatah even though it claims to be independent insisted the international community has a responsibility to assist Palestinian efforts to form a new national unity government based on international and Arab legitimacy. The international community, it said, should realize that Israel is not doing anything to move forward towards peace and recognizing Palestinian rights. And the Palestinians should hurry up and form the new government with a clear agenda that would pull the rug from underneath Israeli attempts to obstruct such a government and as the Israelis try to convince the rest of the world the Palestinians don't want peace.
Jordan's al-Rai said it is not surprising for the Abbas-Olmert meeting Sunday to end without achieving any progress in terms of the peace process and Olmert's previous commitments to Abbas. The mass-circulation daily, partially owned by the government, added in its editorial it could not understand Israeli intransigence at a time when Olmert's government is living through crises due to mistakes based on the use of force and stalling tactics. It insisted the Palestinians have given enough signs to show they want to resolve the conflict with Israel, but the latter persists in continuing with the same "destructive approach it has assumed" since 1967. Olmert's new condition of releasing Cpl. Shalit in return for recognizing a new Palestinian government, it argued, shows a clear desire to foil Palestinian accord "and taking matters back to square one." It said the results of the Abbas-Olmert meeting should constitute a "red light to the decision-making capitals, especially the United States," stressing the meeting was a big setback to all efforts of recent months aimed at trying to save the peace process from total collapse.
Qatar's ash-Sharq said the only result that came out of three hours of talks between Abbas and Olmert is that they agreed to maintain open communication channels, "a policy the U.S. supports." It added that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will again be dispatched to the region in the next few weeks and Israel will use these meetings as part of its policy to pressure Abbas' authority. The pro-government daily argued in its editorial that Olmert held this meeting with the Palestinian president at a time when his popularity is sinking and amid calls for his resignation, saying that he is being tougher with the Palestinians to hide his own failures in other issues important to the Israelis. It said that Olmert's signal of Israel seeing positive elements to the 2002 Arab peace initiative, albeit too late, is aimed at "flirting" with Saudi Arabia before the Arab summit is held in Riyadh later this month. "But Israel cannot consider this initiative an alternative to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict unless there is a strong Arab, regional and international pressure to force the Jewish state to follow a just and comprehensive peace," it said.
The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi commented on al-Qaida's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri's recorded message aired Sunday in which he sharply criticized Hamas leaders for supposedly making concessions to Israel. This attack, it said, could benefit Hamas if it wants to break the Israeli and U.S.-led sanctions imposed on the Palestinian government. The independent Palestinian-owned daily argued that Zawahiri is betting on some trends within Hamas that are not happy with the ongoing tendency, especially how Hamas is becoming closer to some of the Arab regimes such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and giving political action a priority over military resistance. It said it is too early to know the effect of al-Qaida's "fierce criticism" on the Hamas leadership, "but it will certainly consolidate the success of the moderate wing that wants to be involved in reality and enter the political game through a partnership with Fatah and other secular Palestinian factions." The paper, with Arab nationalist trends, argued it is now likely for Hamas leaders to use Zawahiri's attack for its own interests, "as if telling the U.S. and its Arab allies that it, too, faces a threat from al-Qaida and that its leaders are also targeted like other Arab moderates and the U.S. itself." It suggested that Hamas' bet on the Arab moderates might lead to an end to the sanctions on its governments and make it more acceptable to the West and the United States. "But this is likely to come at the expense of the movement's popularity among its popular electorate, which is the source of support" for Hamas, especially if Israeli aggressive policies continue, it said.
