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'Israel to end pacts if Palestine seeks statehood'
Israel has threatened to renounce all past agreements, including the crucial Oslo Accords, if the Palestinians continue their unilateral pursuit of statehood through the United Nations in September.
Israel has threatened to renounce all past agreements, including the crucial Oslo Accords, if the Palestinians continue their unilateral pursuit of statehood through the United Nations in September.
"The unilateral move at the UN is the end of the Oslo Accords and would be a violation of all agreements that we have signed until now," foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a meeting in Jerusalem with European foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.
"Israel would not be obligated to the agreements that it has signed with the Palestinians over the past 18 years," he was quoted as saying by Haaretz online on Saturday.
The EU's top diplomat is in Israel to explore ways to resume the stalled peace talks between the Palestinians and the Jewish state ahead of September amid plans by the Palestinians to approach the UN to recognise their state on the 1967 borders.
Ashton underlined the need for resuming talks given the ongoing regional upheaval and last month's call by US President Barack Obama for negotiations to be based on the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed land swaps.
Blaming Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the stalled peace talks, Lieberman told Ashton that there is zero chance for the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians. "Abbas does not want an agreement, but rather confrontation with Israel," Lieberman said. "This is his personal interest, even though it is contrary to Palestinian interests and many in the Palestinian Authority oppose him," the hardline Israeli foreign minister said.
In the first face to face agreement between Israel and the PLO, the Oslo Accords set the framework for the future relations between the two parties. It provided for the creation of a Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
