GERMANY: ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER SHLOMO BEN-AMI OPTIMISTIC ABOUT MIDDLE EAST PEACE TALKS

Record ID: 400040

  • Title: GERMANY: ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER SHLOMO BEN-AMI OPTIMISTIC ABOUT MIDDLE EAST PEACE TALKS
  • Date: 5th January 2001
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (JANUARY 4, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. MV ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER SHLOMO BEN-AMI WALKING TO PODIUM WITH GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER JOSCHKA FISCHER 0.07 2. SCU CAMERA OPERATOR 0.10 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BEN-AMI SAYING "And we call upon the Palestinians to respect the parameters and to have their observations, as we have our observat
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2001 12:00
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  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA8JRPCJPF2QVO85RSC46P7KVZP
  • Story Text: Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami has said he
    believed Israeli and Palestinian negotiators could reach some
    form of interim Middle East peace deal if both sides kept
    within the parameters set by U.S. president Bill Clinton.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said on
    Thursday (January 4) that Middle East negotiators could reach
    some form of interim peace deal even if they fail to achieve a
    final agreement before U.S. President Bill Clinton steps down.

    "I believe we can reach, if not an agreement, some
    fundamental declaration of principles which can form the basis
    of an agreement," he told a news conference in Berlin with
    German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

    Asked if a final accord was possible before Clinton hands
    over to President-elect George W. Bush on January 20, Ben-Ami,
    Israel's chief negotiator, said: "We need to double our
    efforts in an attempt to reach a deal before he leaves
    office."
    "If we don't reach an agreement we need to be more
    practical and realistic. If it is impossible, we need to find
    a substitute that could be a more general declaration of
    principles."
    "Our call to the Palestinians to double their efforts on
    cracking down on violence and terrorism is more forceful than
    ever. There is a real danger of deterioration," he added.

    Ben-Ami said he was sure the United States would remain
    engaged in the peace process even after Clinton. "I trust
    whoever is in the White House will go for peace in the Middle
    East as a vital component of U.S. foreign policy."
    The Foreign Minister said a deal would only be possible if
    both sides resisted the temptation to try to tinker with
    Clinton's last-gasp peace blueprint.

    "If we want to accomplish an agreement it is very
    important that the two sides do not try to modify the
    parameters set by the President," he said.

    "The package is a series of compromises. The bottom line
    of which is that neither side can be fully satisfied.

    "Calling for a clear cut right to return is outside the
    parameters," he said, referring to the Palestinian demand for
    millions of refugees to return home.

    Israel has said an influx of Palestinian refugees, thought
    to number some four million, would be a demographic timebomb
    for the Jewish state.

    "This is simply out of the question", Fischer said.

    Fischer said Germany supported the U.S. peace plan and
    said the two sides should not hesitate to adopt it. "One would
    only lose more time and more innocent people," he said. "Both
    sides are called to seize the chance now."

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