THE Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, appears to have hammered a new nail into the coffin of Middle East peace hopes by indicating that he is not interested in resuming negotiations with the Palestinians on a phased transfer of power.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were suspended three months ago, after Mr Netanyahu approved the start of construction of a new Jewish neighbourhood, Har Homa, in Arab East Jerusalem. Since then US, EU and, most recently, Egyptian diplomats have failed to broker terms for a return to the negotiating table.
A speech delivered by Mr Netanyahu at an economic conference late on Monday has reduced the prospects for resumed talks still further. For the first time in public, the Prime Minister seemed to be rejecting the entire Oslo framework that has governed the peace process since 1993, the gradual handover of West Bank land to Palestinian control.
If negotiations were restarted, he said, "it will only be with the aim of achieving a final agreement. The talks will not be renewed in order to move step by step into the unknown."
Mr Netanyahu has said in the past that he is keen to accelerate efforts to reach a permanent deal, but had not previously indicated unwillingness to proceed further with the phased Oslo approach.
Earlier this year he narrowly won cabinet support for the next stage of the Oslo process, a withdrawal from some rural areas of the West Bank. But that withdrawal has never been carried out, since the Palestinians protested that an insufficient area of land was being relinquished by the Israelis.
Mr Netanyahu's latest remarks can only exacerbate Palestinian frustration at the negotiating deadlock, frustration demonstrated by the fourth consecutive day of clashes yesterday at Hebron in the West Bank. Some two dozen Palestinians were wounded, at least three seriously, by Israeli troops firing back at stone-throwing protesters. The four-day total of Palestinians injured now tops 100.
Renter adds:
The Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, left Gaza yesterday for a visit to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states for talks on deadlocked PLO-Israeli peace-making, Palestinian officials said.
An adviser to Mr Arafat laid out his itinerary. "President Arafat will first visit Saudi Arabia for talks with King Fahd within the next 24 hours, and then he will visit other Gulf states," he said.
Mr Arafat last visited Saudi Arabia in December.
Saudi-PLO relations, which soured during the 1991 Gulf War due to the PLO's support for President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, have improved since the 1993 PLO-Israeli peace deal.