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JERUSALEM, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that a peace deal with Palestinians was more than a year away, despite recent comments to the contrary floated by Palestinian National Authority and American officials.
"The peace process is unlikely to end within the next year, as disagreements between the two sides are too deep," he said in a wide-ranging interview with Israel Radio.
Lieberman said that Israel will renew construction in West Bank settlements, after a self-imposed 10-month building freeze concludes on September 26. It was not clear what the extent of that construction would be.
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| Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks during a news conference before an Yisrael Beiteinu party meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem July 19, 2010. |
But Palestinians have threatened to walk out on next week's talks in Washington between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, if the bulldozers are fired up.
This is the first time Israeli and Palestinians will be sitting across the table in direct talk in almost two years.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has invited Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II to attend the talks. Clinton said the U.S. had no illusions over the extent of the differences between the Israelis and Palestinians.
"There have been difficulties in the past, there will be difficulties ahead," Clinton said in a statement, but added, "I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region."
