ISRAELI FOREIGN minister Avigdor Lieberman says the peace talks with the Palestinians, which resumed last week in Washington, are doomed to fail.
The hardline foreign minister told activists from his Yisrael Beiteinu party yesterday that the optimism from both Israel and Palestinian officials was premature.
“Signing a comprehensive peace agreement is not an attainable goal – not next year, and not in the next generation. Nothing is going to help; not historic compromises or painful concessions.”
Mr Lieberman also said there was no reason for Israel to continue with the West Bank settlement freeze, which expires in less than three weeks.
Earlier, on a more optimistic note, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he was “ready for a historic compromise” with Israel’s neighbours, as contacts continued in an effort to prevent the issue of settlement construction torpedoing the negotiations.
Speaking during a visit to Libya yesterday, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he warned Mr Netanyahu last week that the Palestinians will leave the talks if Israel does not extend its limited 10-month settlement-building moratorium.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak indicated that Israel is unlikely to continue with the freeze in its current form after September 26th. However, he implied it was still possible to reach a compromise that would keep the Palestinians at the negotiating table.
Mr Netanyahu, who is scheduled to meet next week with Mr Abbas in Sharm el-Sheikh for a second round of talks, confirmed that the differences over settlement building still remain. “There are many obstacles in the negotiations, and continuing the freeze is a big obstacle,” he said.
But, he remained optimistic, telling his Likud ministers that “important Arab countries” backed the peace process even though their leaders had still not voiced public support. “In order to succeed this time, we must draw lessons from 17 years of negotiations, and think in a creative way, and outside the box, in order to reach practical solutions. I believe this is possible, and I’m willing to reach a historic compromise with our neighbours, as long as our interests – led by security – are maintained.”
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the sides have agreed on the core issues to be discussed at the negotiations and have agreed to start from the point the previous talks ended 20 months ago, when Ehud Olmert was Israeli prime minister.
According to Mr Erekat, determining the future borders of a Palestinian state would be top of the agenda. “This is the time for decision-making, not negotiations. What is needed is agreement on the principles of the final status issues,” he said.
Mr Netanyahu continued to come under fire from right-wing members of his Likud party, who remain sceptical. “If the public wanted a Palestinian state within a year, they would have voted for Kadima and not Likud,” Knesset member Danny Danon said.