WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama is planning a three-year meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
in New York, President Shimon Peres
confirmed Monday evening in an interview to FOX News.
According to the president, the meeting will be held at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, which is scheduled to open on September 23.
| Palestinian Conditions |
|
| Abbas aide: No talks without full settlement freeze / Reuters |
|
Nabil Shaath says Palestinian president will reject any US initiative to resume peace talks with Israel unless construction in settlements frozen in full without exceptions or 'loopholes'. Israeli commitment to establishing Palestinian state enough to bring Abbas back to negotiations table, he adds |
| Full story |
|
|
|
In the interview, which will be aired Tuesday at 1 am (Israel time), Peres said the three-way meeting may serve as a catalyst for resuming the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
"I think that at least there is a chance that they will decide they are going to reopen negotiations," Peres said. "But that will not include Hamas."
As for the demand to halt settlement construction, the president clarified that "on that particular issue, there is not yet an agreement. Negotiations are going on."
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's
representatives, Yitzhak Molcho and Mike Herzog, are slated to visit the US in order to continue Israel's dialogue on the settlement issue with special US envoy George Mitchell.
"I do believe there is a solution for it as well," Peres said during the interview. "It must be soon. It's very hard to convince your own people to make so many concessions - to take so many risks. But this is the task of a leader to move ahead."
The president added that Prime Minister Netanyahu "is aware of the choice, and he knows there is no chance, no escape, no alternative to go ahead and make peace. He knows he must do it ... it's just not a simple proposition."
Addressing the Iranian nuclear threat, Peres told FOX News he is convinced by intelligence he has seen that Iran
is trying to build a nuclear weapon, and that Israel must work to convince other nations Iran is not only a threat to Israel.
RSS
