Israel's Lieberman Says Peace Talks Unlikely to Resume
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday the impasse in peace talks with the Palestinians was likely to continue, two weeks after U.S.-backed negotiations collapsed.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dragged the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table last July, ending a three-year hiatus in talks.
But those efforts derailed even before an April 29 deadline, with Palestinian and Israeli leaders exchanging recriminations and reneging on commitments made during nine months of fruitless talks.
"As of now, the impasse in negotiations with the Palestinians is expected to continue," Lieberman told parliament's foreign and defense committee in remarks relayed by a spokesman.
He accused Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas of having "no interest to reach a deal with Israel, no matter what Israel offers him," noting past proposals of Israeli land concessions Abbas had turned down.
Abbas and Kerry are to meet in London on Thursday for the first time since the talks collapsed.
Both sides broke the terms of the July deal, with Israel stalling a release a last group of Palestinian prisoners, and the Palestinians then seeking to adhere to 15 U.N. conventions.
Days later, Israel suspended its participation in the negotiations after Abbas unveiled plans to set up a Palestinian unity government with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip and is committed to Israel's destruction.
Israel said it would introduce "a number of measures" in response to the moves, but took no significant action.
But Lieberman again warned Tuesday of Israeli retribution.
"Israel has yet to use the resources at its disposal to deal with the unilateral measures the Palestinians have taken," he said.
The minister further said the Palestinians were hesitant to apply to more U.N. institutions, despite the probability they would be accepted, "due to the fear the Americans would stop giving them money."
He reiterated the Israeli stance of no negotiations with the Palestinian unity government, "so long Hamas does not accept the Quartet conditions" of recognizing Israel, rejecting violence and abiding by existing agreements.
Abbas says the new government he is set to head with Hamas backing would reject violence and recognize Israel and existing agreements, but that it is the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he also heads, that conducts negotiations.
Israeli President Shimon Peres later said on Tuesday that he hoped for a return to talks with Palestinians.
"The negotiations with the Palestinians, led by Kerry, are currently paused but they are not finished," he told a press conference in Oslo.
"Neither side has a better alternative than peace based upon two states for two peoples. I hope that the negotiations will be re-started," he said.
President Peres made the upbeat comments during the first state visit by an Israeli president to Norway.
The first secret peace talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators also took place in the Scandinavian country, culminating in the now defunct Oslo Accords in 1993.
The agreement -- which led to seven years of stop-start peace talks -- was followed in 1994 by the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Shimon Peres, then foreign minister, along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
Source: Agence France Presse
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