we have been until the last month
Last month? How do you explain the use of last month with the present perfect tense?
I don't see that until last month ( week and year) is grammatically equivalent to until recently or until now in this context?
QUESTION The secretary-general give you his views on the Palestinian
proposal for a U.N. force in the West Bank and Gaza? and also, did he
give you any indication that you had made any progress in his efforts
to try and secure the release of the Israeli soldiers?BEN-AMI: Well, with regard to the first point, I made it clear to him, just as I made
it clear to other interlocutors over the last week, that there is no
need at all for any kind of international force. We are — we have
been until the last month, in the middle of a peace process, in fact,
the peace process has been in existence in the Middle East for the
last seven years. The only thing that we need to do now is simply to
cease violence, to observe the Sharm el-Sheikh memorandum, and get
back to the business of peace making. There is no need for any kind of
international force or international for the parties.
Date: 2000. Title: Acting Israeli Foreign Minister Holds News Briefing at the United Nations.
Source: CNN Transcript – Special Event
Best Answer
This looks like an example of someone with ESL having difficulty with the use of the tense. Note the "until the last month" which is another typical error; "until last month" is correct. They both have the feeling of "foreign accent" to them.
"Have been in the middle of" means that the state of being began at some unspecified point and continues at present. "Were in the middle of" means that the state ended at some specific point in the past. "Had been in the middle of" means that the state was ongoing over a period of time in the past, but usually also involves some sort of specific or implied explanation of what caused the state to end. For example "We had been in the middle of a peace process when the bombings last month ended it."
In this case, I think the meaning is best expressed as "We are...we were in the middle of a peace process until last month."