Washington, April 05: Amid a row over Jewish settlements, Israel’s top diplomat in Washington said Sunday that there was a chance of a “historic peace” if Palestinians come back to the negotiations table.
Noting that the government of Israel is committed to moving forward with the peace process, Michael Oren said it is for the Palestinians to come to the negotiations table.
The Israeli Ambassador hoped that once the Palestinians join the negotiating table, his country can negotiate with them for a “historic peace”.
“We hope so. I am personally very confident. I think that the conditions today exist for moving forward toward a peace that did not exist perhaps at any other time in recent memory,” the envoy told CNN.
Oren said the government of Israel is deeply committed to moving forward on the peace process, “moving swiftly, addressing all of those core issues, including Jerusalem, at the negotiating table”.
“Once they sit down with us face to face, we believe that we can move swiftly to move addressing all of these core issues, Jerusalem borders, refugees, and we can reach a historic peace,” he underlined.
The upbeat appraisal from the Israeli diplomat flew in the face of recent tensions and came after President Barack Obama refused to back down in a row over Jewish settlements.
Oren said “we should proceed directly to peace negotiations without a change in policy”. “We understand that Jerusalem will be one of the core issues discussed in those peace negotiations, but the main issue is to get the peace negotiations started,” he noted.
He said the conditions exist for moving forward toward a peace.
“We have an Arab world where most of Arab leaders view another country, Iran, as the greatest threat facing them, not the state of Israel,” he said, adding “We have a Palestinian leadership which I said earlier is committed to the peace process”.
He underlined that the Israeli government, “which is very widely represented, very stable” is “capable of making those hard decisions”.
“And we have President Obama, a person who is personally committed to this process,” he added.
The envoy highlighted that during 16 years of negotiations with the Palestinians, there were “two cases where Israeli Prime Ministers put complete peace plans on the table, including Jerusalem”.
–PTI