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Date Posted: 06:19:56 05/08/09 Fri
Author: pastor lewis
Subject: Blair: Israel-Palestinian talks must address Jerusalem

Last update - 17:28 07/05/2009


Blair: Israel-Palestinian talks must address Jerusalem

By Reuters

Tags: Israel News



Renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians must tackle core issues including Jerusalem, Middle East envoy Tony Blair said, raising the specter of a clash with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Unless you're dealing with the core issues, then the negotiation, I don't know what it's about," Blair, envoy for the Quartet of Middle East mediators, the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, told Reuters on Thursday. "It will be the substance that matters."

Blair's remarks were the strongest signal yet by the Quartet that it would pressure Netanyahu to resume negotiations on final-status issues - the borders of a Palestinian state as well as the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
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Netanyahu's main right-wing and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners oppose negotiations on the core issues, underscoring the difficult balancing act he faces in trying to satisfy Western demands for substantive peace moves without triggering an internal backlash that could destabilize his government.

Netanyahu, who met Blair on Wednesday, has been vague in public about the scope of any future peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Western-backed government holds sway in the West Bank.

This week, Netanyahu said he was ready immediately to begin negotiations on economic, security and political issues.

But he has so far refused to endorse a two-state solution, or to spell out whether "political" negotiations would include the core issues.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment on Blair's remarks, but a senior official said "the Palestinians can bring to the table their concerns and we will bring to the table our concerns" without preconditions.

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