The Mecca Agreement: What Should We Expect?

Ramzy Baroud

...The official reactions to the agreement, emanating from the four corners of the globe are hardly encouraging. The so-called Middle East Quartet – consisting of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia – although they welcomed the agreement, hoping that it might produce the desired 'calm’, reiterated their conditions that must be unreservedly ratified by the Palestinian government if the sanctions are to be lifted; these conditions are the recognition of Israel, the renouncing of violence and the acceptance of past agreements signed between both parties, namely the Oslo Accords. Though the Quartet is seen to have withheld its final judgement on whether the formulation of the unity government constitutes an acceptance, either directly or by implication of its three conditions, Israel is embarking on its own diplomatic campaign to heighten pressure...

continua / continued