Peace unlikely even in 16 years: Israeli Foreign Minister

Source Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Israel and the Palestinians have been unable to reach a peace deal in the 16 years since the signing of the Oslo interim peace accords, and it is likely they will be not do so in the next 16 years, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday. 'There is no chance of bridging the Israeli and Palestinian positions in the foreseeable future,' he was quoted as telling reporters. Lieberman noted resolutions passed at the recent conference of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, which he said called for a resumption of violence if peace talks failed, an insistence that Palestinian refugees return to the homes they abandoned in what is now Israel, and alleged that Israel killed former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. For this reason,' the Jerusalem Post daily quoted him as saying, 'those who say that a two-state solution will end the conflict don't have any idea what they're talking about or are intentionally misleading.'