The Palestine U.N. Observer, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, warns of stalled peace negotiations

Ambassador Riyad Mansour

/ CBS News

(CBS News) A day before Quartet on the Middle East mediators are expected to meet in Washington, D.C., the Palestine U.N. Observer, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, spoke with CBS News about prospects for peace. For 65 years, negotiations to bring peace to the Middle East have failed. This week, the Quartet principals -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov -- are scheduled to meet at Blair House in Washington, after having called for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks and for a framework agreement by the end of 2012.

The previous Quartet summit took place last September at U.N. headquarters at the same time that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, submitted an application for full Palestinian membership - a plan which later failed at the Security Council.

"The talks are stalled," said Mansour, "We hope that the Quartet can succeed in getting the negotiations out of the impasse that we are going through."

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But Israel and Palestine appear to remain far apart. In an article in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, writer Edmund Sanders in Jerusalem said: "Israel's government is scrambling to find ways to save some of the unauthorized West Bank settlements it once promised to dismantle, including some that are built partly on private Palestinian land."

Watch Pamela Falk's interview with Mansour at left.

Mansour, who was present when Abbas presented the failed U.N. membership bid, said that if the parties want to establish a two-state solution, they must both comply with the Quartet mandate.

Mansour said, "The Israeli side, they say that they want to have a state for the Jewish people, which is Israel, in which the majority are Jews. If you keep pushing the envelope to take the land of the Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem, and build more settlements and have more settlers, then this action is destroying the two-state solution."

Thus, the Quartet, meeting tomorrow, knows that delaying until after the U.S. election - what some analysts believe is happening - could have long-term effects.

"If they destroy the two-state solution, then they are pushing in the direction of a one state solution. What is the one state solution? That the two people, the Palestinian people and the Israelis, the Jews in Israel, would live in one state, in which the population is roughly the same. In a few years, the Palestinians will be more than the Jews in that one state. Therefore, the dream of the Zionists of having a state for the Jews will diminish," Mansour added.

And, if talks fail, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said this week, Palestine will return to the U.N., this time to the General Assembly for enhanced status as an "observer state."

Israel's U.N. Ambassador, Ron Prosor, considered one of Israel's most experienced diplomats, spoke to CBS News last year about the implications of a Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations and the threats to peace in the Middle East.

Violence in the region has increased in recent months. Israel said Palestinian militants had fired a total of 180 rockets from Gaza since the violence erupted, leaving four Israelis wounded. Israel's Air Force responded and called on the U.N. Security Council to take action over the rocket assault. Prosor wrote to the U.N. that the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas, continues to be a bastion for terrorist activity, adding that over a hundred rockets were fired against Israel.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on the Quartet on the Middle East to speak out more forcibly on the issue of Israeli violence against Palestinians when it meets Wednesday in Washington.

In January, the U.N. Secretary General traveled to Amman, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Gaza and Tel Aviv, which was an attempt to restart Jordan's direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians - but that effort has also stalled and the conflict has become overshadowed by the uprising in neighboring Syria.

Watch Pamela Falk's video from the Secretary General's Mideast trip

Still, Mansour believes that the 65-year-old conflict can arrive at a solution, "if both sides negotiate in good faith," a difficult objective in a war-torn region.

[worldcitizen1]

If the Jewish 'settlements' are allowed to continue, there will be nothing left to negotiate. That is what Israel's gov. is counting on.

[Jesus_to_ground_control]

Read All About It: Palestinian Holocaust Worst Ever?*

The dwindling Palestinian land is worst than I thought. The Jews are very close to destroying a foreign country and its people completely. Maybe it will take them another ten years to eliminate the Palestinians. Maybe thirty, but it will happen if nothing is done to stop them right now.

So they have already set up house thousands of years ago. So what? Is it justification to take it over by force and kick out all of its present inhabitants? Killing a people? Destroying a way of life in the name of God?

Before all this turns into the worst holocaust ever it is still time for Israel to sit down with Palestine and work out a deal that will be beneficial for both, by sharing the land with equity and redefining the borders so that the people of Gaza are not cut off from the main land and so on.

There is still time to stop the present Palestinian holocaust and repair the damages done to the Palestinians.
It is time for Israel to live at peace with Palestine.


*Holocaust: The persecution and genocide were carried out in stages. Various legislation to remove the Jews from civil society, predominantly the Nuremberg Laws, was enacted in Nazi Germany years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labor until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. (Wikipedia)

[morris2196]

After studying the map and demographic statistics, I can not see enough space in the areas under discussion for both Israel and a Palestinian state. 40% of Israel consists of the Negev desert, much of which can't support heavy human habitation; the high population density of Gaza compounded by the high birth rate among Palestinians; the fact that there are literally millions of Arabs in surrounding Arab countries who identify themselves as Palestinian and want to live in a Palestinian state; Israel's need for the west bank for security reasons; and so on. The only question is which one state is that going to be. I place my bet on Israel.

[A_Aloy]

The current Israeli Government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu leads a government whose polices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are less than democratic. To reject the United Nations from visiting the West Bank to probe illegal settlements is illogical since Mr Netanyahu claims to support a Palestinian State (but not based on the US President's 1967 lines).

Nonetheless, I believe that there is a desire by most people in the world to see a full and comprehensive peace in the Middle East but this vision has been hampered by Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu, who relentlessly is building settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

To put the conflict into context with respect to international law and the feelings of the world, may I convey the following.
Last November, there were a further 6 UN Resolutions on Palestine and the Middle East. One resolution on Jerusalem was supported by 166 nations plus the UK. Israel disagreed. In fact, there are over 150 UN Resolutions (including 181, 191 and 194) - all remain unimplemented in full.

Furthermore the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the Hague pertaining to the 'security barrier', which is 3 times the length of the Berlin Wall, has been sadly ignored by Mr Netanyahu. Perhaps if the 'security barrier' had to be built at all, it would have been better to have constructed it on the 1967 borders - instead of inside the internationally recognised Palestinian Territories (including East Jerusalem).

Nonetheless once this 'separation barrier' and the settlement enterprise is completed, Palestinian communities will be separated into pockets of territory that lack contiguity, surrounded by settlements only accessible by settler only roads. 'Natural growth' settlements too were not acceptable as part of Phase I of the internationally agreed Road Map (2003). Day by day, the 'security barrier' and settlements erode the possibility of a two-state solution and the viability to bring about a fully comprehensive peace for Israelis and Palestinians.

There are 130 nations in the world that recognise Palestine including India, China, Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil. More recently Iceland and Thailand have added to that recognition. Lastly UNESCO's recognition last year of Palestine (supported by France, Spain, Ireland and Norway amongst many European nations) was still a positive step forward and a counter balance to those who deny Israel or Palestine's right to exist. Dignity and peace is paramount for both peoples and recognition of both states ensures that those in the rejection camps are marginalized even further.

[euge005]

One post read, "94% of Palestinians are Muslim who elected Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic government funded by Iran". Untrue. After the part about 94% muslim, this is Israeli propagansa. And who would not become militant if your country were occupied not just in your life time but all the years since 1967. Israel has to pack up their squatters and get out, period. Then their army has no excuse to be in the west bank to protect them. Giza is a different story and Hamas there does prevent a true peace. But as a US taxpayer I am tired of supporting the occupation. End it already. No more US money to Israel or the Palistinians until they let the poor people live in peace.

[karlimhof]

israel should return to stolen lands they've taken illegally, dismantle all the "settlements", and pay the palestinians reparations for the 60 years of occupation. After that, they should stop asking us for billions of dollars and take care of themselves. Amen.

[morris2196]

Israel has fought and died several times over for every inch of land they have. If you think they are going to give it up, you need to stop smoking whatever you are smoking.

[redbeachvn]

Israel should incorporate all the Palestinians into their country and stop taking my tax money. That way they can build more Settlements without any complaints, that will solve all their problems. Israeli debt vs GDP is 77%; US debt vs GDP is 100%, go figure that one out.

[stopoil]

94% of Palestinians are Muslim who elected Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic government funded by Iran and sworn to destroy Israel and turn it into a Islamic state. This and only this is the road block to peace. This is the elephant in the room that the Western press loves to ignore.