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JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman does not believe it was possible to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians in a year or "during the next generation," army radio reported on Sunday.
"I do not believe that a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians is possible within a year, nor even during the next generation," it reported him as telling members of his ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party at a function ahead of Wednesday's Jewish new year.
"Since the Oslo accords 17 years ago, important politicians have made multiple pledges and statements that nothing ever came of," the station quoted him as saying.
"We have not examined in depth the reasons why we have paid such a high price for each accord with the Palestinians which has had no results," Lieberman was quoted as saying.
Direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, suspended since the Jewish state's offensive on the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008, resumed in Washington on Thursday with the aim of reaching an accord within one year.
However, the US-brokered talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will face their first major hurdle later this month when an Israeli settlement moratorium expires.
The Palestinians have insisted that if Israel does not renew the partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank when it expires on September 26 the peace process will come to an end.
Netanyahu is under pressure from right-wingers who dominate his ruling coalition to resume construction, and has said settlements should be discussed alongside other core disputes that have bedeviled past attempts at peace, including the final status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Lieberman, in remarks broadcast by the private Channel 2 television, said "Abu Mazen (Abbas) will not sign a comprehensive agreement. That's why we should look for a long-term interim accord and concentrate on Israel's security."
"The signing of a peace agreement does not mean the end of the conflict and of mutual demands as well as the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people," he also said according to Channel 2.
- AFP/de
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