Interest renewed, White House to host Mideast leaders

Two weeks after brokering an ice-breaking phone call between Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, US President Barack Obama announced Friday that he would host Erdogan at the White House as one of a series of meetings with Middle Eastern heads of state.

The announcement of a battery of high-level meetings between Obama and Middle Eastern leaders was made as Secretary of State John Kerry departs for a second round of meetings with regional leaders this weekend, and appeared to indicate revived American engagement in Middle Eastern affairs.

Along with Erdogan, who will travel to Washington DC on May 16, the White House announced Obama will host Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on April 16, Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on April 23, and Jordanian King Abdullah II on April 26.

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Friday noted Obama’s “close relationships with these leaders and deep personal interest in region.”

Asked in the White House press briefing Friday whether the meetings would focus on the situation in Syria, Carney replied, “not just Syria, but including Syria. There are obvious issues for these leaders to discuss. Including Syria, his recent visit [to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan], and broader developments in the Arab Spring.”

Notably absent, however, was any mention of Iran in the press briefing, despite the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, and the US’s mutual concern over Tehran’s unsanctioned nuclear program.

Kerry is slated to meet with Abbas on Sunday in Amman, and is also said to be set to meet with Netanyahu during his trip as part of a US push to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Turkish media reported that the newly inaugurated secretary of state would also be paying a visit to Ankara for a meeting with Erdogan ahead of the latter’s trip to Washington.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday called on Netanyahu to lay out the proposed borders of a future Palestinian state as a precondition for renewed negotiations between the two parties.

Political adviser Nimr Hammad told AFP that the Palestinian leader “wants to know, through a map to be presented by Benjamin Netanyahu to Kerry, what the prime minister’s view of a two-state solution would be, especially the borders.”

“Any return to negotiations requires Netanyahu to agree on 1967 borders,” Hammad told the news agency.

A senior member of Hamas, meanwhile, indicated in an interview in Al Monitor on Friday that the Islamist party ruling the Gaza Strip “is prepared to accept a state within the 1967 borders,” but not recognize Israel or a two-state solution.

“We do not say ‘two states.’ We agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, within the 1967 borders, and that this would include a solution to the refugee problem. What I can tell you is that all factions in the movement agree to this and are prepared to accept it,” Hamas Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad said.