CAIRO: The head of the Arab League said yesterday the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Israeli foreign minister changed Israel’s tone rather than its policy toward the Palestinians and a wider peace initiative.
Secretary-General Amr Moussa told a news conference at Arab League headquarters in Cairo that the previous Israeli government of Ehud Olmert had not abided by agreements on settlement building in the occupied West Bank and had ignored an Arab peace initiative.
“In my opinion the previous government of Israel did not honor the understandings on which the Annapolis (peace) conference was based,” Moussa said. “What the new foreign minister in Israel is saying is putting that in a blunt, very aggressive way.”
“The new style of talking is just a new style. It does not initiate a new position. We know the Israeli position is negative when it comes to peace, when it comes to initiatives of peace,” he said.
On his first day in office at the foreign ministry on Wednesday, Lieberman said the US-sponsored Annapolis declaration of 2007 “has no validity.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Lieberman’s comments were “unfortunate” and represent the first setback for peace efforts from the new government, but were not surprising given his previously stated views.
Relations between Egyptian officials and Lieberman have long been tense. In 2001, Lieberman suggested Israel bomb the Aswan Dam. New Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Lieberman as foreign minister as part of a broad coalition after elections in February.
