Israel rejects EU call for Palestinian state deadline

13 July 2009

JERUSALEM - Israel on Monday rejected a European Union call for the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if Israel and Palestinians fail to agree on a peace deal.

“A peace agreement can come only following direct negotiations and cannot be imposed,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told public radio.

Lieberman was commenting on a speech by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in London on Saturday in which he called for the international community to set a deadline for recognizing the state of Palestine.

“The mediator has to set the timetable,” Solana said, according to a transcript of his speech. “If the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should ... be put on the table.

“After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution. This should include all the parameters of borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security arrangements,” he said.

“It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims.”

A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said UN recognition would be “one option if Israel derails the efforts of US President Barack Obama’s administration and its vision of a two-state solution.”

“Europe, as a member of the international Quartet, must continue in its efforts to apply pressure to Israel to freeze the settlements and stop wasting time,” Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

But the Israeli foreign ministry blasted Solana’s call, which would effectively impose a solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.

“Any approach that calls for an artificial deadline undermines the prospects of actually reaching a bilateral agreement,” it said in a statement.

Israel has come under increasing pressure from its closest ally Washington to take steps in the stalled peace process, such as freezing all settlement activity on occupied land, but the right-leaning government led by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do so.

Israel and the Palestinians revived peace negotiations at an international conference in November 2007, but the talks were put on ice after Israel launched its war against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December.

The Palestinians have said they will not return to the negotiating table unless Israel freezes all settlement activity, one of the main obstacles in the hobbled peace process.

On Sunday, Netanyahu called on Abbas to meet him to restart talks. “I say to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, let’s meet to reach a political and economic peace,” he said at Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu has said he will not allow new settlements to be built but will permit construction in annexed east Jerusalem and existing settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.

The premier has spoken on the phone with Abbas since being sworn into office on March 31, but he has yet to meet the Palestinian leader.