Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel foreign minister rules out withdrawal from Golan Heights
Peace with Syria will only be in exchange for peace, Lieberman says
- Agencies
- Published: 20:34 April 2, 2009
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel's new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ruled out in an interview published yesterday any withdrawal by the Jewish state from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.
"There is no cabinet resolution regarding negotiations with Syria, and we have already said that we will not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights," Lieberman told the Haaretz daily.
"Peace will only be in exchange for peace," he said.
The interview came a day after firebrand Lieberman said the new government led by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not bound by the US-backed agreement to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians reached in 2007 at the Annapolis, Maryland conference.
The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in 1981, a move not recognised by the international community.
Syria, which technically remains in a state of war with Israel, wants the territory back as part of any peace deal with the Jewish state.
Israel and Syria conducted indirect talks last year via Turkey, but these were stopped at the end of December when Israel launched a devastating war in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert said recently that the two sides were on the brink of starting direct negotiations.
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said on Monday that Arabs "do not have a real partner in the peace process" in the Netanyahu government.
Lieberman also said itwould be difficult to make progress in peace talks with Palestinians as long as armed Hamas Islamists control the Gaza Strip.
"The Palestinians must first of all confront terror, take control of Gaza and demilitarise Hamas," the foreign minister told Haaretz. "Without these, it will be difficult to move forward," he said.
Lieberman angered Palestinians and raised the prospect of tension with Washington on Wednesday by saying that Israel was not bound by an understanding to start negotiations on setting up a Palestinian state.
On his first day at the Foreign Ministry, Lieberman said the US-sponsored Annapolis declaration of 2007 "has no validity", confirming a shift in Israel's stance toward the Palestinians under new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The White House responded to those remarks by saying it was committed to working for a two-state solution. "[We] understand that we will have frank discussions," a US spokesman added.
Under understandings reached at the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, Israel and the Palestinians tried to revive peace negotiations by tackling core issues leading to statehood.
Lieberman, a Soviet immigrant denounced as a racist by many Arabs, told Haaretz, however, that Israel was only obliged to meet its commitments under a "road map" of 2003, which include removing unauthorised outposts and freezing settlement activity.
The road map, also backed by the United States, calls on Palestinians to stop attacks on Israel before any talks on the final shape of a statehood deal take place.
"We will conduct talks with the Palestinian Authority, but we want to make sure their "checks don't bounce," Lieberman said. "Israel undertook obligations regarding the road map and it will honour them, but there must be reciprocity."
Lieberman's remarks on Wednesday confirmed that Netanyahu's government has withdrawn from its predecessor's commitment to negotiate on borders and issues such as the status of Jerusalem before the two sides are satisfied road map pledges are met.
Reuters
Bone of contention
An old Israeli tank sits near Merom Golan in the Golan Heights. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War. Israel annexed the Golan in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally.
AFP
Avigdor Lieberman
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