Livni: “We will continue the Annapolis process”

Israeli Foreign Minister, in charge of forming the new Israeli government, Tzipi Livni, stated on Sunday that peace talks with the Palestinians should resume as planned in the Annapolis summit and added that “so far nothing has been agree upon until an agreement on everything is reached”.

Israeli Foreign Minister - Tzipi Livni

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyadh Al Maliky, who participated in the conference, accused Israel of violating the Annapolis agreement and that the Palestinian Authority (P.A) is under pressure from the Arab League to resume the peace process.

During the opening ceremonies of the Foreign Minister’s conference on policy and strategy in Jerusalem, Livni said that the peace process should be resumed and called on Al Maliky not to allow “homemade shells and political developments to affect the peace process”.  

 Both Palestinian and Israeli officials expressed doubts that a peace deal could be achieved by the end of this year.  

 Al Maliky said that the Palestinians are seeing increasing levels of uncertainty as Israel is not respecting its own vows made during the Annapolis summit.

Israel vowed that a Palestinian state would be established before the end of 2008. Al Maliky stated that Israel violated this vow and that the Palestinians are losing hope that their state would be established before the end of the year.

Al Maliky also said that the failure of peace talks means that the alternative would be Hamas. “If we fail, what would the alternative be? Look at what Hamas did in Gaza?” he added.

“Hamas refuses any peace talks with Israel, we must show the people that what we need today is negotiations, Hamas is using the failure of peace talks as a justification for the resumption of violence”, Al Maliky said, “We are under pressed from the Arab League to resume the pace process, but right now there is no peace process”.

Al Maliky also slammed the ongoing the Israeli construction and expansion of settlements and the Annexation Wall, and said that settlements are a huge obstacle to peace.

“Settlements are ticking bombs”, he said, “we must reach a two-state solution, we must empower the Palestinian authority instead of weakening it”.

Meanwhile, Livni said that the peace talks must resume as planned during the Annapolis summit and directed her words to Al Maliky by saying “I call on you to hold talks with us and not on the pages of newspapers”.

On the internal Israeli affairs, Livni said that Israel now needs a stable government which is capable of countering all “internal and external challenges”.

She added that the Israeli economy is very powerful and that this economy can last even in wars.

“Our economy should not be dependent on a certain political situation or a certain political party”, Livni added.

Palestinian Foreign Minister - Riyadh Al Maliky