Israel will not release the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners because of renewed Palestinian efforts to join international organisations.
A spokesman for Tzipi Livni, Israel's justice minister and the government's chief negotiator, said on Thursday that the Israeli government had been working to finalise an agreement to free the prisoners when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed letters of accession to 15 international conventions.
Abbas said it was a response to Israel's failure to release prisoners as promised, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Livni said the prisoner release was tied to the Palestinians avoiding unilateral moves, adding that the "new conditions were established and Israel cannot release the fourth batch of prisoners".
- Israel had promised to free 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners in four tranches, and in exchange, Ramallah pledged to freeze all moves to seek membership in UN organisations until April 2014.
- Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Jerusalem, said: "It's almost like watching a game of ping-pong. Lipni said they [Israel] would apply sanctions if they [Palestinians] went to the UN.
"We have seen peace talks come and go. All of these are just talks about talks, talking about a framework. No-one has sat down and discussed the future of Jerusalem. It is very difficult to see how this will ever be solved."
Lieberman's visit
The stalemate comes as Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, prepares to fly to the US on Friday to meet with his US counterpart, John Kerry, who earlier this week rushed to the Middle East in a surprise visit to rescue the peace talks..........[aljazeera.com]
3/4/14
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Israel cancela libertação de presos palestinianos...
ReplyDeleteIsrael decidiu anular a libertação do último grupo de prisioneiros palestinianos, previsto no âmbito de conversações de paz, caso não seja retirado o pedido de adesão da Autoridade Palestiniana a diversos tratados internacionais.
A ministra israelita Tzipi Livni, responsável pelo dossier das negociações, informou o negociador palestiniano Saeb Erekat sobre a recusa de Israel em honrar a promessa de libertação de 26 detidos devido à decisão da direção palestiniana em pedir a adesão a 15 acordos e tratados internacionais, refere a edição digital do diário Yediot Aharonot.
Na semana passada, Israel tinha já anunciado que apenas libertaria os presos caso os palestinianos dessem garantias que as conversações de prolongariam se para além de 29 de abril, o fim do prazo estipulado quando foi retomado o diálogo.
Numa primeira reação, os Estados Unidos consideraram que a anulação desta medida "criou dificuldades" ao processo de paz.
"A decisão pelos israelitas de atrasar a libertação do quarto grupo de prisioneiros criou dificuldades", sublinhou Jay Carney, porta-voz da Casa Branca.