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U.S. Defense Secretary to Israel, Palestinians: "You don’t lose anything by negotiating"

03 October 2011 20:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on Monday both Israel and the Palestinians could only gain by returning to the direct talks after he met with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"My main message is to both sides, you don’t lose anything, you don’t lose anything by going into negotiations," Panetta said at a press conference held at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, stressing that the current Palestinian path to statehood via the United Nations went against U.S. policies.

"One thing that’s been made clear ... is that you’re not going to achieve Middle East peace by trying to slam-dunk it in the United Nations," Panetta said, "the only way you’re going to achieve it is by negotiations," he said, according to the Yisrael Hayom daily.

In his first visit to the Middle East region since being appointed to his current post, Panetta will also meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) leaders, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Panetta said the recent decision made by U.S. Congress to cut off 200 million U.S. dollars in funding for the PNA went against the administration’s stated position.

"The administration opposes holding these funds from the Palestinians," he said, "this is a critical time and it is not a time to withhold those funds," Panetta said.

Turning to regional issues, Panetta said the United States was "very concerned" with Iranian nuclear development, adding that his country and Israel "will work together to do whatever is necessary " to thwart any threat to the region. The two countries believe that Teheran is working to acquire nuclear weapons.

In his previous position as Central Intelligence Agency chief, U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009 dispatched Panetta to warn Israel against possible military action against Iran.

Reaffirming the "strong security relationship" between the United States and Israel, Panetta said he wanted "to make clear that we will protect their qualitative military edge."

"As they take risks for peace, we will be able to provide the security that they will need in order to ensure that they can have the room hopefully to negotiate," he said.

He added, however, that the "question you have to ask is -- is it enough to maintain an military edge if you are isolating yourself diplomatically? Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort and military strength," Panetta said.

Due in Egypt on Tuesday, Panetta said he was unable to comment on reports of a possible release of Israeli-American tourist Ilan Grapel, who was arrested on espionage charges by Egyptian officials four months ago. Both Israel and the United States strongly denied the charge.

Local media in Cairo averred that Grapel might soon be released. Panetta, however, told reporters that "I cannot say anything about the specifics about that," adding "we’ve made our concerns known to the Egyptians about holding that individual."