/ 22 November 2010

Netanyahu: No promise to reach border deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said told his Likud party there was no deal to reach a border agreement within the new 90-day freeze.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that agreements with the United States over a new 90-day settlement freeze would not include a commitment to reach a border deal in three months.

“There is no agreement that we will reach an agreement on borders within 90 days. There is no such demand and no such commitment,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as telling members of his hardline Likud party.

The deal with Washington, which has not been finalised, would see Israel granted a package of security and diplomatic incentives in return for implementing a new partial halt to building in the occupied West Bank.

Many commentators believe the three-month freeze is designed to allow the Palestinians to return to peace talks that would specifically focus on the borders of a future Palestinian state.

That would allow Israel to continue construction in large settlement blocs that would become part of the Jewish state after expected territorial swaps under any peace settlement.

But Netanyahu said a resumption of talks would focus on all final-status issues.

“There will not be separate talks on borders, but on all the core issues. We intend to enter serious discussions on all issues,” he said, according to the statement.

Deal not in writing
However, a resumption of negotiations does not appear imminent.

The deal with the Americans was worked out in talks with United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month, but has not yet been finalised with Israel demanding the agreements in writing.

The US has said it is willing to put the understandings in writing, but their failure to produce a document after more than two weeks indicates that disagreements remain.

“We have still not yet received the written understandings from the Americans,” Netanyahu told party members who largely oppose the new moratorium.

“If we get a written commitment, I will bring it to the cabinet and I’m sure the ministers will approve it because it is what’s good for Israel.”

Another hitch was the insistence from the Palestinians that the new freeze on settlements include east Jerusalem, which the previous moratorium did not and which Israel has refused to do.

“If it does not encompass Jerusalem — in other words, if there is not a complete freeze on settlement in all the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem — we will not accept it,” Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas told reporters in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday.

No talks without new moratorium
US-sponsored direct peace negotiations resumed on September 2 but collapsed three weeks later with the expiry of a 10-month Israeli partial ban on West Bank settlement building.

The Palestinians have refused to rejoin the peace talks until a new moratorium is imposed. — Sapa-AFP