Defence minister: Renewal of negotiations is vital Israeli interest

Nov 3, 2009, 11:04 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israel's moderate defence minister insisted Tuesday that the hardline government he had joined was interested in renewing peace talks with the Palestinians.

Speaking as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Middle East envoy George Mitchell were wrapping up a visit to the region, Ehud Barak said he that reviving the negotiations was a 'vital' Israeli interest.

'We in Israel appreciate very much the efforts of the secretary and of Senator Mitchell to try and bring about a renewal of negotiations between us and the Palestinians. The Israeli government continues to act and I am in the government mainly to make sure that this happens,' said the Israeli minister, of the left-to-centre coalition Labour Party.

He said talks with the US would continue when he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travel to Washington early next week.

Holding negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state was in Israel's interest because otherwise support among Palestinians for a bi-national state would grow, or they could decide to declare a state unilaterally, he warned.

'The goal of the negotiations is clear: To reach an agreement that will end the conflict and the mutual claims, and bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state with territorial and economic viability next to the state of Israel, in a way that will end our control of another people and will end the occupation that began in '67,' said Barak.

Most Israelis and Palestinians have been pessimistic about the chances for a renewal of peace talks, which were broken off late last year as Israel headed into new elections.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had made an absolute stop to Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank a precondition for resuming the negotiations with the hardline Netanyahu.

The Israeli premier, however, has insisted he wants to hold negotiations without preconditions. He has agreed to a temporary moratorium of construction in West Bank settlements of up to nine months, that would exclude Jewish neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, as well as under 3,000 apartments already in the pipelines.

Clinton in Israel Saturday night called Netanyahu's offer 'unprecedented' and backed his stance that negotiations should begin without preconditions.

But in Morocco on Monday, she tried to calm Arab and Palestinian anger over that supportive remark, and clarified that Netanyahu's offer 'falls far short of what we would characterize as our position.'

Mitchell, meanwhile, was expected to hold another parley with Abbas in Amman on Tuesday, as part of his ongoing but as yet failed effort to move the back to the negotiating table.