Peretz's aides: Progress depends on Shalit's release
Towards meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli defense minister plans to demand release of kidnapped soldiers as precondition for progress in Middle East peace talks. UN chief says he won't talk with Palestinian PM Haniyeh
In a Saturday meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz plans to demand progress on the release of the three kidnapped Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser and Gilad Shalit.
"Shalit's release is a preliminary step for any diplomatic developments," sources from Peretz's office said.
Peretz will also stress the importance of the release of soldiers Goldwasser and Regev, who were kidnapped in a cross-border attack by Hizbullah, sparking last summer's war in Lebanon.
Peretz will be greeting the UN Secretary-General at Ben Gurion Airport on Ban's first visit to Israel. Immediately afterwards the two will hold a meeting in the airport to discuss several security issues on the agenda.
A number of Israeli defense establishment officials will also be meeting with Ki-moon and are expected to raise matters related to Syria, Lebanon and the Iranian threat, including Israel's demand to increase sanctions against Iran.
Peretz will ask Ban to enforce the international community's decision to stand by the Quartet's conditions and not talk with the Hamas government.
'I will not meet with Haniyeh'
Ban has already said that he has no plans to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh during his Middle East tour.
"I will be meeting with President (Mahmoud) Abbas and other members of the (Palestinian) cabinet. At this time I will say that my itinerary schedule does not include my meeting with Prime Minister Haniyeh," he told a news conference in Cairo.
Palestinian cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad, like Haniyeh a member of the Islamist movement Hamas, confirmed that no meeting had been arranged but said it would be wrong and discriminatory for Ban not to see Haniyeh.
The United Nations is part of the international Quartet, which is demanding that the Palestinian government recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept old agreements with Israel.
Haniyeh, as a leading member of Hamas, has not accepted the conditions of the Quartet, which also includes the United States, Russia and the European Union.
Hamad said: "(Failure to meet Haniyeh) would be wrong because this is a government of national unity that represents the entire Palestinian people and the United Nations is supposed to be an organization that represents all countries and not a political organization.
"It will not serve to create an atmosphere of stability ... We hope the United Nations will play a bigger role in narrowing the gaps and in opening dialogue between countries and not to adopt the style of boycott," he added.
Ban said he might also meet the Palestinian ministers of finance and foreign affairs, either with Abbas or separately. The two ministers are independent of both Hamas and of Abbas' secular Fatah movement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
