6th Nov 2013 11:43
JERUSALEM (Alliance News) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he was "concerned" about the prospects of the three-month-old peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
He spoke as US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and immediately afterwards with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in nearby Bethlehem.
Palestinian officials have expressed outrage at Israel's publication of tenders for the construction of almost 1,900 homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank ahead of Kerry's arrival.
They are also furious at claims by Israeli officials that they agreed to condone settlement construction in exchange for Netanyahu's agreement to free 104 jailed militants.
Netanyahu insisted Israel was abiding "scrupulously" by the terms of the negotiations, which did not include a settlement freeze as a precondition.
"I see the Palestinians continuing with incitement, continuing to create artificial crises, continue to avoid, run away from the historic decisions that are needed to make a genuine peace," Netanyahu told Kerry in Jerusalem.
Kerry is under pressure to advance the peace talks, which have made little progress since they were restarted in late July after being stalled for years.
"It can be done," he said in a bid to calm the parties, urging them to keep their commitment to avoid accusations and public comments and to "negotiate privately, secretly, quietly."
"We have six months ahead of us on the timetable we have set for ourselves and I am confident we have the ability to make progress," he told reporters.
But the two side are also in deep disagreement over the future of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, which makes up 40% of the West Bank and where Israel wants to maintain a military presence even after a peace deal.
Abbas said on Monday that he will not "give up on one millimetre" of East Jerusalem, which he said will be the capital of the future Palestinian state, nor agree to keeping the Jordan Valley under Israeli military control.
Abbas' advisor, Nimr Hammad, nevertheless indicated the Palestinians would not walk out of the nine months of negotiations they had committed to, but said he expected Kerry to be more forceful in his denunciations of the Israeli construction on occupied land.
"The US should at least take a position similar to that of the EU. It should send a strong message to Israel about settlements," Hammad told Voice of Palestine Radio.
Immediately after landing in Tel Aviv late Tuesday, Kerry paid a visit to a memorial for Yitzhak Rabin in the centre of the coastal city, on the site where the late Israeli premier was shot dead on November 4, 1995 by an extremist Jew opposed to his peace moves with the Palestinians.
"We are now 18 years since that moment, and it is clear that we need voices ready to sing a song of peace loudly, with courage, with the same determination that prime minister Rabin showed in his quest for peace," Kerry said.
"I can promise Israelis that America will stand by the side of Israel every step of the way," he added.
Copyright dpa