Carr: we’ll help with peace talks
FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has welcomed the announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured) that Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have agreed in principle to resume peace talks.
FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has welcomed the announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured) that Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have agreed in principle to resume peace talks.
Kerry announced in Amman, Jordan, last Friday that the sides had reached an agreement on establishing a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations, which have been on hold for three years.
Carr congratulated Kerry and his team and commended both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas for their leadership.
“I recognise that the resumption of negotiations is a first step on what will be a challenging and difficult path towards a two-state solution,” he said.
Carr said it was vital that both sides were “committed to negotiate in good faith and to make the difficult choices that lie ahead in order to achieve a durable peace”.
“Australia stands ready to assist in supporting the efforts of Israel, the Palestinians and the United States to achieve a lasting peace, with a secure Israel alongside an independent and viable Palestinian state,” he said.
Australian Jewish communal leaders also welcomed the development.
“We express our sincere hope that a just and enduring peace can be reached between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of the principle of two states for two peoples”, Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Danny Lamm said.
Zionist Federation of Australia president Philip Chester said: “We are hopeful that progress will be made although we are aware that given the history of this process, that it is unlikely to lead to any immediate significant agreement.
“We call on the Palestinian leadership to approach these negotiations without insisting on any preconditions in order to attempt to give the negotiations the best chance of success.”
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein noted Israel’s 10-month construction freeze and repeated calls for negotiations without preconditions.
“It is only through face-to-face negotiations that the two sides have any hope of advancing towards the two-state peace, which is the only resolution which can meet the needs and aspirations of both peoples,” he said.
“We hope that both sides will enter into the negotiations, as Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu has urged, ‘with integrity, sincerity and the hope that this process will be conducted responsibly, seriously and substantively’.”
Former US ambassador to Israel Dr Martin Indyk, who grew up in Australia, is expected to head the American delegation brokering the talks.
GARETH NARUNSKY
Foreign Minister Bob Carr.
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