US. Secretary of State Kerry chats with Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Lowenstein in Amman
JERUSALEM: Israel will not bow to the Palestinians’ demand on the borders of their future state before peace talks begin but will meet their request for the release of some prisoners, Israeli officials said yesterday.
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council welcomed yesterday EU plans to ban its 28 members from dealing with Jewish settlements, hoping the move would push forward peace efforts.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Israel and the Palestinians had laid the groundwork to resume talks after an almost three-year stalemate, but that the deal was not final and required more diplomacy.
Remarks made yesterday by Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steintiz suggest the sides still face major stumbling blocks before negotiations can resume, however.
Yaalon said in a statement that Israel “had insisted it would enter negotiations with no preconditions which included the Palestinian demand on the 1967 borders ... and that is exactly what is happening now.”
The Palestinians say the talks must be about establishing a future state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, with borders approximating the boundaries that existed before Israel captured those territories in a 1967 war.
Steinitz said there had been no Israeli concession on that point nor on the Palestinian demand that Israel halt all construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“There is no chance that we will agree to enter any negotiations that begin with defining territorial borders or concessions by Israel, nor a construction freeze,” he said. A senior Palestinian official with knowledge of the talks suggested the Palestinians would not back down. “Our position remains clear: resumption of negotiations should be based on the two-state solution and on the 1967 borders.”
Kerry said on Friday that the deal between Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations was still being “formalised” but that negotiators for both sides could begin talks in Washington “within the next week or so”.
Reuters
