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Israeli FM says peace deal in one year unlikely

JERUSALEM — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that renewed peace talks with the Palestinians were unlikely to get anywhere within the one-year timeframe set by the United States.

“It’s clear that the two sides are so different; in content, in approach, that it’s hard to talk about a peace agreement within a year,” Lieberman told Israeli public radio.

The two sides, due to relaunch direct talks in Washington next week after a 20-month hiatus, have been negotiating since 1993, when they signed interim accords after secret peace talks in Norway, but have yet to reach an agreement leading to Palestinian statehood.

“What have we been doing for the 17 years since Oslo?” Lieberman asked rhetorically.

“Suddenly we’re going to reach a peace agreement within a year? I think that the more we can lower expectations the healthier it will be.”

Lieberman said that Palestinian insistance that talks cannot proceed if Israel continues building in the occupied West bank and east Jerusalem were part of “difficult preconditions” likely to torpedo talks from the outset.

“Anyone coming with an ‘all or nothing’ attitude will end up at the end of the day with nothing,” he said.