JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israel’s defense minister says he believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will endorse the creation of a Palestinian state during his upcoming visit to Washington.
Netanyahu has been reluctant to back a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis despite pressure from the United States.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says he believes Netanyahu will back the two-state plan when he meets with President Barack Obama tomorrow. Barak told Channel 2 TV yesterday that he believes an agreement with the Palestinians is possible within three years.
Earlier, a lawmaker close to the premier said he will refuse on his trip to Washington to back the formation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu “will not make a commitment to Washington on the creation of a Palestinian state which would undoubtedly become a ‘Hamastan’,” Ophir Akunis from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party was quoted as saying, referring to the Hamas movement.
The hawkish premier is scheduled to arrive in Washington today ahead of his maiden meeting with Obama since the two men took office this year.
The Israeli premier has pledged to unveil his policy for regional peace at the White House meeting, focused on countering Iran.
Meanwhile, the Hamas movement said yesteray that it will not discuss the recognition of Israel with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party during reconciliation talks in Cairo.
“We can discuss with Fatah all the options... which do not contradict our national goals and the rights of our people, except the American card which stresses recognition of the Zionist entity and the conditions of the Quartet,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in Gaza.
“This is not open for discussion.” The so-called Quartet —the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — has long demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognize Israel and past peace agreements as a precondition for dealing with any Palestinian government in which the Islamist movement is represented. Representatives of Fatah and Hamas began a new round of reconciliation talks in Cairo yesterday.
In another development, Egypt opened its border with Gaza yesterday to traffic into and out of the impoverished territory which has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly two years, security officials said.
