Clinton: U.S. "Will Not Impose" Mideast Solution
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally opened the first direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years on Thursday, imploring the parties to ignore the long history of failed negotiations and make needed compromises to forge an agreement.
At a ceremony in the State Department's ornate Benjamin Franklin room, Clinton said the Obama administration was committed to forging a settlement in a year's time. But, she stressed that the main work must be done by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We will be an active and sustained partner," she said. "But we cannot and we will not impose a solution. Only you can make the decisions necessary to reach an agreement and secure a peaceful future for the Israeli and Palestinian people."
Netanyahu and Abbas pledged their seriousness to securing an agreement and overcoming decades of mutual hostility and suspicion.
"This will not be easy," Netanyahu said. "True peace, a lasting peace, will be achieved only with mutual and painful concessions from both sides."
"We do know how hard are the hurdles and obstacles we face during these negotiations - negotiations that within a year should result in an agreement that will bring peace," Abbas said.
Abbas called on Israel to end Jewish settlements in the West Bank and other areas that the Palestinians want to be part off their own state. Netanyahu insisted that any agreement must assure Israel's security.
CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante reports that the four main issues separating Israel and the Palestinians have been the same for decades:
• The borders of a Palestinian state;
• Israeli security;
• Jerusalem, whether Palestinians too can claim it as their capital;
• And refugees, whether Palestinians have a right to return to lands from which they were forced or fled.
Now there is hope. Cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has been improving. For nine months, there's been a halt to Israeli settlement construction but that moratorium expires on September 26. Unless there is a compromise to extend it, the talks could fail before they really begin.
Thursday's negotiations are the first since the last effort broke down in December 2008 and are fraught with complications, including recent violence in the West Bank and Israeli settlement activity. Expectations are low and U.S. officials have said success may be only an agreement to hold a second round of negotiations.
Officials say they are hoping to arrange that meeting for Sept. 15 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik and top aides to the leaders are expected to meet later Thursday to iron out final details of the next step.
Sitting at the top of a U-shaped table between Netanyahu and Abbas, Clinton congratulated the two for agreeing to resume negotiations but warned of difficult days to come in the effort to create an independent Palestinian state.
"I know the decision to sit at this table was not easy," Clinton added. "We understand the suspicion and skepticism that so many feel borne out of years of conflict and frustrated hopes."
She noted two recent attacks on Israelis in the West Bank claimed by the militant Hamas movement underscored the difficulties facing the two leaders.
"But, by being here today, you each have taken an important set toward freeing your peoples from the shackles of a history we cannot change and moving toward a future of peace and dignity that only you can create."
Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli residents of a West Bank settlement on Tuesday as Netanyahu, Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan convened in Washington. And on Wednesday, hours before the leaders ate dinner at the White House, Hamas gunmen wounded two Israelis as they drove in their car in another part of the West Bank.
The talks will face their first test within weeks, at the end of September, when the Israeli government's declared slowdown in settlement construction is slated to end.
Palestinians have said a renewal of settlement construction will torpedo the talks. The Israeli government is divided over the future of the slowdown, and a decision to extend it could split Netanyahu's hawkish coalition. Netanyahu has given no indication so far that it will continue beyond the deadline.
Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off nearly two years ago, in December 2008, and the Obama administration spent its first 20 months in office coaxing the two sides back to the bargaining table. Despite the success in launching the talks, gaps between the sides are wide, distrust remains after years of violence and deadlock, and expectations are low.
After listening to the Mideast leaders he convened Wednesday night, Obama pronounced himself carefully optimistic. "I am hopeful, cautiously hopeful, but hopeful," he said.
© MMX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
