26-04-2024 01:48 PM Jerusalem Timing

Netanyahu Warns to Take Unilateral Step in ’Peace Talks’

Netanyahu Warns to Take Unilateral Step in ’Peace Talks’

Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his Jewish entity was willing to continue U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians but not "at any price".

Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuZionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his Jewish entity was willing to continue U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians but not "at any price".

Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he would respond with steps of its own if the Palestinians pressed ahead with unilateral actions toward statehood, but didn't elaborate further.

Attempts by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to put peace talks back on track unraveled in the past week after the Palestinians signed 15 international conventions, mainly through the United Nations.

"By doing so, the Palestinians fundamentally violated the understandings that were reached through U.S. intervention," Netanyahu said in his first public remarks since the crisis erupted.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decided to sign the international conventions after the Zionist entity reneged on a pledge to free the last group of 104 Palestinian prisoners it agreed to release in the deal that led to the negotiations restarting nine months ago.

"They (the Palestinians) will achieve a state only through direct negotiations and not through empty proclamations or unilateral moves, which will only push a peace accord farther away," Netanyahu warned.

The talks have struggled since they began in July, stalling over Palestinian opposition to Israel's demand that it be recognized as a Jewish state, and over Israeli settlements, internationally deemed illegal, in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

U.S. envoy Martin Indyk was due to meet the chief Zionist and Palestinian negotiators on Sunday to try to salvage the process.