Asia

Asia

"Interim agreement with the Palestinians is possible": Netanyahu

28 December 2010 19:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An official from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday declined to comment on whether Netanyahu has de facto decided to adopt his foreign minister’s plan, a long-range interim agreement with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), as a viable solution to reigniting the stalled peace process, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

In an interview he gave Israeli TV Channel 10 late Monday, Netanyahu said there "can be a situation, and we’ve discussed this in the septet (the forum of senior ministers) in the past year, that if we get into this discussion (talks with the Palestinians) we will likely hit a wall named Jerusalem, perhaps a wall named refugees."

"It could be that the result would be an interim agreement. It’ s possible. I do not rule this out, including in the talks that we have held," he added.

Netanyahu has stated in the past year that he is in favor of a permanent settlement to be reached within a year, in accordance with the U.S. administration’s demand prior to the launching of the direct talks between Israel and the PNA early September.

But Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu Party, Netanyahu’s main coalition partner, is pushing his own plan, which calls for a long-range interim agreement with the PNA, and is reportedly attempting to have it discussed in the Cabinet.

With Lieberman’s influence in the government steadily increasing, Netanyahu told Channel 10 that while the former’s plan is possible, Israel should refrain from publicly declaring it as its preferred solution to the stalemated talks.

"If we say this in advance, it is not certain they (the Palestinians) will come so easily (back to the negotiation table). But it could be the result of a diplomatic process. I am not certain that it should be its primary goal," said Netanyahu.

The Israeli-Palestinian direct negotiations came to a halt with the end of Israel’s 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlements construction in the West Bank. The Palestinians have insisted on the moratorium on all Jewish settlements as a precondition for its return to the direct talks with Israel.

The prime minister claimed that the Palestinians’ refusal to negotiate is the reason he has not yet presented the Obama administration with the outlines of his plan for a future peace deal.

"If the Palestinians shelve the idea of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, if they have a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state, I tell you here and now that I will go with this to the end and that no coalition consideration will stop me," he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported on Tuesday that Netanyahu’s staff is knee-deep in a crisis after his chief spokesman, Nir Hefetz, announced his resignation Monday evening in favor of a job in the private sector.

Two other Netanyahu confidants, political advisor Shalom Shlomo, and personal assistant Tzahi Gavrieli, announced their resignation in the past week.

Addressing the Foreign Ministry’s annual conference of Israeli ambassadors on Sunday, Lieberman, who leads the radical right-wing in the Cabinet, said Netanyahu’s assurances of a final peace agreement were "unrealistic."

Asked in Monday’s night interview how a minister in his government is able to repeatedly humiliate him in public, Netanyahu refrained from criticizing Lieberman, saying "he doesn’t humiliate me. He expressed his opinion."