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Israel rebuffs call for talks on core issues
Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:50PM EDT

By Adam Entous

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel on Tuesday ruled out negotiations "at this stage" on the borders of a future Palestinian state, rebuffing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and casting doubt on a U.S. push to tackle the issue.

Israel gave its response a day after U.S. President George W. Bush said "serious negotiations toward the creation of a Palestinian state" could begin soon.

Bush said the talks should lead to a deal on Palestinian borders, suggesting other final-status issues such as Jerusalem and refugees wait until later.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian leader, who dismissed a Hamas-led cabinet after the Islamist group's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last month, was prepared to start negotiations immediately on all final-status issues.

Abbas said this to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in talks in Jerusalem on Monday, officials said.

"Israel has openly stated that we're willing to talk about issues of 'political horizon' and about how to achieve the vision of two states for two peoples," said Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin.

"But we have been very clear that we are not willing to discuss at this stage the three core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem," Eisin added.

Western diplomats and analysts said Bush seemed to be outlining a strategy of staged negotiations under which borders would be delineated before other core questions were addressed.

TERRITORIAL SETTLEMENT

Bush said the negotiations he envisaged starting soon "must lead to a territorial settlement, with mutually agreed borders reflecting previous lines and current realities, and mutually agreed adjustments".

Bush said this would help show Palestinians a clear way forward to establishing a state and could ultimately lead to agreement on the fate of refugees and Jerusalem and a permanent end to the conflict.

"On the face of it, President Bush is now saying, in effect, that parties should focus on what is solvable, namely territory, while deferring the issues considered most difficult: Jerusalem and refugees," said David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He called this "a departure from the past when all issues were bundled together".

A senior Israeli official said Israel discounted the seriousness of Bush's push for negotiations on borders because he did not set a timetable.

The official said Israel was counting on Bush insisting that Palestinians rein in militants before advancing to talks about borders. Another official acknowledged: "The sequencing/phasing is left vague and open to interpretation."

Bush urged Israel to uproot small Jewish outposts built without government approval in the West Bank but stopped short of demanding established settlements be removed. Instead, he called for an end to "settlement expansion".

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit Israel and the occupied West Bank on Monday for the first time since becoming envoy for the Quartet of Middle East mediators, diplomatic sources said.

A spokesman for Blair said: "Mr Blair is satisfied that his mandate allows him to play the role that is essential to advancing prospects for peace in the Middle East, and that is what he is focusing on."

The quartet comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Israel rebuffs call for talks on core issues (http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1634517020070717)