Ambassador: Obama must keep his election promise to resolve Middle East conflict
MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) - Palestinian authorities value the effort U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is making to arrange the Palestinian-Israeli dialogue but this effort will be pointless unless Washington pressures Israel, Palestinian Ambassador in Moscow Fayed Mustafa said.
"The efforts made by John Kerry have not brought the desired results. We value his efforts and his numerous shuttle trips. But these efforts should be supplemented with the "carrot and stick" approach or they will be useless," the head of the diplomatic mission said in an interview with Interfax.
The United States is rendering significant support to Israel in the political, economic, military and financial fields, he said.
"The U.S. is giving $6,000 aid to Israel per minute or $8.5 million aid per day, so the U.S. is capable of pressuring Israel if it wants to," Mustafa said.
"President Barack Obama has this chance: he has two years of his presidency left and he is not afraid of losing the next election because this is his second term and he will no longer be a candidate," the Palestinian diplomat said.
"Whether he has a congressional majority or not, he is still the president who possesses vast powers and influence and we would like him to use that [potential] for finding a historic solution to this confrontation as he promised when he took the office at the White House," he said.
"Unless the U.S. hints to Israel that their assistance, support and political shielding may stop, Israel will not obey and sincerely participate in this political process," the Palestinian ambassador stated.
Mustafa admitted that Kerry had failed to make progress in the arrangement of a dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis within the nine-month period assigned to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"But he has not given in and we would like him to use new mechanisms to which we have pointed in his interaction with Israel and which will definitely make him successful," the diplomat said.
A full text of the interview will be posted on the www.interfax.ru website.