Palestinians hit back: Incoming Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is a racist who will hinder regional peace efforts, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday evening.
Yasser Abed Rabbo said Lieberman constituted "an obstacle to peace" and that he would "harm Israel first of all."
"We are not obligated to hold talks with a racist hostile to peace like Lieberman," Abbas' aide said.
In his induction speech earlier in the day, Minister Lieberman said that concessions or words won't bring peace, adding that the incoming government was not bound by understandings reached in the Annapolis conference.
Earlier, the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs told Ynet that Lieberman's words reinforced Palestinian and international fears over the policies of Israel's new rightist government.
"The Israeli side completely repudiates agreements and understandings that have already been reached," Ashraf al-Ajarmi said, adding that international involvement was needed in order to press Israel to stop settlement activity and honor past agreements.
Foreign Ministry criticism
Meanwhile, a source in the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Lieberman's speech "had the effect of a shell."
"Any rookie diplomat knows that a sentence like 'those who want peace should prepare for war', that ancient Latin phrase, is something one does not say to the press, especially if you have a political message you want to convey," the official added.
"It's unclear why he attacked Annapolis, when the American government is already distancing from this conference as it is. Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell never once mentioned Annapolis during their visits to the region. Why must we create an artificial conflict?"
'No class'
"Lieberman succeeded in defining a consensual thing in a way that raises objections," the official said. "Support for the Road Map is something that is already accepted by the international community, but he found a way to say it so that it raises controversy."He added, "Whoever wants to make headlines without first coordinating with the prime minister raises serious doubts as to his compatibility with future foreign policy."
Regarding the new minister's scuffle with outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni the source said: "There has never in the history of the Foreign Ministry been an incoming minister who denigrated the outgoing minister so badly. He showed he had no class. It wasn't gentlemanly."
Roee Nahmias contributed to the story