Jerusalem, September 16: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has downplayed the issue of illegal West Bank settlements as a tool in the hand of the Palestinians to hinder peace talks.
Lieberman on Tuesday said the West Bank settlements ‘are not a real problem’, accusing the Palestinian Authority of taking advantage of the matter as ‘an excuse to avoid direct talks’.
“Everybody who tries to use settlements as an obstacle for any comprehensive solution, tries to cheat public opinion and tries to avoid any peaceful approach to the problems,” visiting Lieberman told reporters in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.
He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has expressed its willingness since it took power for an immediate meeting with the Palestinian Authority and for direct talks without preconditions.
The remarks come amid escalating criticism by the international community over Israel’s recent decision to boom the settlement blocs erected on the occupied Palestinians lands in the West Bank before succumbing to a freeze on its construction activity.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week approved 455 building permits in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war but is mainly populated by Palestinians.
The announcement outraged the Palestinian Authority officials, who had already ruled out any peace negotiations until Israel put an end to its land-grabbing and settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (al-Qods).
But Lieberman said that new Israeli settlements in the West Bank should not be an obstacle to peace.
Netanyahu earlier said plans to build nearly 3,000 new apartments in the West Bank would remain on course and there would be no restrictions on expanding Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
—–Agencies