Tel Aviv, January 21: Israel will maintain a security presence along the eastern border of a future Palestinian state, hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
“In the case of the future settlement with the Palestinians, this will require an Israeli presence on the eastern side of the prospective Palestinian state,” he said, refusing to elaborate on the nature of such a presence.
This was Netanyahu’s first public comment since coming to power last year on the issue of borders of a future Palestinian state, and comes amid intensive US efforts to restart the peace negotiations which were suspended a year ago.
Netanyahu’s comment is bound to anger the Palestinians who have repeatedly demanded an independent state along the borders of 1967 before Israel illegally occupied the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza.
“Based on recent experience, we can’t afford to have that replicate a third time… we have to have something to interdict the flow of weapons,” Netanyahu said, in a reference to the democratically elected Palestinian movement Hamas and the Lebanese opposition party Hezbollah.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are originally resistance movements that still seek to liberate their lands (Palestine and Lebanese Shebaa Farms) from illegal Israeli occupation
—Agencies