Israel rejects 'preconditions' for direct talks on Palestine

Dubai: As many Palestinian politicians widely expected, Israeli officials on Monday rejected any "preconditions" ahead of an expected international invitation to re-launch direct peace talks with the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government is not willing to discuss withdrawing from the land occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinian analysts said. Doing so would threaten the stability of the coalition government.

"Netanyahu is not willing to withdraw [from the entire West Bank, including occupied east Jerusalem] either peacefully or by force," said Hani Al Masri, director of the Palestinian Centre for Media and Research, based in Nablus.

"Israel is ready to start direct negotiations immediately, but without any preconditions," an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The Palestinians, who have lost valuable time by refusing to revive these direct contacts, will present all the topics they want to discuss at the negotiating table," he added.

Israel, which says it wants the resumption of direct talks, considers halting the colonial activities in the West Bank a "precondition". But the Palestinians are saying that was part of previous agreements. Accelerated Israeli colonial activities, they add, in the past few years have changed the demographic and geographic map of the West Bank, including occupied east Jerusalem.

There are nearly half a million Israeli colonists in more than 120 colonies across the West Bank. The fate of these colonies and the future of occupied east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians are stressing is the capital of their future state, are considered among the top thorny issues in the peace talks.

Cabinet support

The Israeli media, meanwhile, reported that the Israeli inner cabinet which comprises seven top cabinet members, decided on Sunday evening to support Netanyahu's position in rejecting the awaited Quartet statement because it would set preconditions for the direct talks.

"The Quartet declaration should allow the Palestinians to descend the tree they have climbed by refusing negotiations, but it must not be binding on Israel," several Israeli media outlets quoted an unnamed minister as saying.

The Palestinians have asked for a statement from the Quartet — the main powers involved in the Middle East efforts: the US, EU, Russia and UN, similar to a statement issued last March calling on Israel to halt colony construction for the direct talks to lead to a final peace deal in 24 months on the basis of the two states solution.

The expected statement from the "Quartet sounds a little strange," a Palestinian analyst said last week amid reports of efforts to revive the peace process.

He was questioning the effectiveness of a new statement from the Quartet while Israel is refusing to withdraw from Palestinian land.

International pressure

"Instead of pressuring Israel to bring its position closer to the international community's one, there are efforts to bring the international community's position closer to the Israeli one."

While the Israeli government seemed poised to officially reject the Quartet statement, an unidentified Israeli minister was quoted as saying Israel will accept a parallel invitation issued by Washington that would be "more balanced."

— With additional inputs from AFP