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Israeli chief negotiator lauds deal to resume talks with Palestinians

20 July 2013 02:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israeli chief negotiator with the Palestinians, Tzipi Livni, hailed on Friday night the agreement on the resumption of the long-stalled Mideast peace talks, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Earlier in the day, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Israel and the Palestinians have reached an agreement to resume the peace talks.

"I am fully convinced that this is the right thing for our future, our security and our economy," Livni wrote on her social network website page.

"The negotiation is not going to be easy," Livni said. "Inside the negotiation room we will keep the security and national interests of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. "

According to Kerry, if everything goes as expected, Livni and Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, will hold initial talks in Washington next week.

Meanwhile, a well-informed Palestinian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Kerry on Friday agreed to hold meetings between Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators within the coming few days.

The source said Kerry gave Abbas assurance about an Israeli declaration of accepting the principle of the two-state solution based on 1967 borders, despite Israel's current rejection of it.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians came to a halt in 2010 over Israel's refusal to extend a freeze on settlement building in east Jerusalem and West Bank, where Palestinians hope to establish their own state.