国际英语新闻：News Analysis: Next options being considered as Mideast direct talks fail

JERUSALEM Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Following two and half months of intense diplomatic activities, the United States has acknowledged its efforts to get the Israeli government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) back to direct negotiations have failed.

It was in September that a 10-month Israeli freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank ended and so did the Israeli-Palestinian direct talks under American supervision.

Analyst told Xinhua that the U.S. administration is expected to shortly announce a new strategy regarding its peace brokering efforts, but warned of the pessimistic prospect.

Dr. Samir Awwad, professor of international relations at Birzeit University in the West Bank, is of the opinion that the Palestinians may seek other ways to gain statehood than through U. S. backed talks.

"The Palestinians need to focus on their good international relation and try to convince as many countries as possible to follow Brazil and Argentine that have acknowledged a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders," he said, referring to the letters sent by the leaders of Argentine, Brazil and Uruguay to Abbas confirming their recognition of an independent Palestinian state in 2011.

However, Prof. Eytan Gilboa from the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at the Bar-Ilan University outside Tel Aviv holds another view. He warned that the unilateral declaration could jeopardize the Oslo accords.

"It would free Israel from all its obligations under the Oslo peace process, and it would be able to say that 'there is already a Palestinian state and the conflict is solved,'" he told Xinhua.

Asked about the possibility of future negotiations under Washington's brokering, Awwad was doubtful that the U.S. has a role to play in the future.

"The U.S can not continue to lead the negotiations after they have acknowledged that their own failure in trying to convince Israel to freeze the settlement construction," he said.

Another choice for the Palestinians is that, some analysts argue, the negotiations would be transferred from U.S. sponsorship to the Quartet, which in addition to America includes the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

However, U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who returned to the region this week, vowed that his country would continue efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks despite difficulties.

"There are still many difficulties and obstacles in the way but we are determined to persevere in our efforts to see independent and viable state of Palestine," Mitchell told reporters on Tuesday after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Gilboa said that he was not sure whether the Obama administration does have a plan on what to do next.

"They have sent George Mitchell here again to try the resumption of talks. It seems that it's going to be very difficult, because the Palestinians demand to completely freeze settlement construction while Israel is not prepared to do that, especially in Jerusalem," he said.

Analysts believe that a difference between Mitchell's current visit and his previous trips to the region is the U.S. now is planning to deal with various issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

"The U.S. seeks to help the two parties reach an agreement to all final-status issues, and that would pave the way for a final peace treaty. That remains our goal," Mitchell said on Wednesday in Cairo.

During direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Madrid in early 1990s, which led to what later became the Oslo peace accords, it was decided that the three core issues, the borders of the future Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, would be dealt with at last due to their sensitivity.

According to local media reports, the U.S. is now planning on dealing with these issues first instead. So far this idea seems to have been well received in the region, but it remains to see whether the smiles will wither once the work gets started.

In the eyes of Jonathan Spyer, a senior research fellow at the Inter-Disciplinary Center in Herzliya, it is fair to say at the moment that the proximity talks are back, referring to a model where U.S. envoy Mitchell meet the parties separately and then convey the messages between them.

Spyer is holding a pessimistic view on the future of the talks, due to the fact that "the positions of the two governments are irreconcilable."

In the meanwhile, Spyer warned that the time left for the Obama administration is quite limited now.

Following the U.S. midterm elections in November, there has increasingly been calls in Washington that President Barack Obama should focus on domestic politics and economy, instead of spending time on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

"There is another 10 to 11 months for the talks to run, before the administration has to go into election campaign mode," Spyer predicted.