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Israeli-Palestinian Peace Still Hopeful: Peres
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has come to a standstill due to deadly clashes between the two sides since last September, but Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres still envisaged hopeful prospects.
"Oslo (peace process) is neither failed nor dead, because people need peace just as they need air," the noted dovish leader souned upbeat in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Sunday.
"Peace can not die just as life can not die," he added.
Speaking at his office in Tel Aviv, Peres, a Nobel peace laureate and architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, said that although the bloody conflicts have left the two sides in a situation full of tension and antagonism, both of them have accepted a U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan.
The ongoing violence was triggered by Israeli violation of Islamic holy sites in East Jerusalem late September last year. Mediated by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet, the Palestinians and Israel declared the ceasefire on June 13.
But the truce is now under critical test due to continued confrontations between the two sides.
Admitting that the current ceasefire is "in deep crisis," Peres said that "the crisis is not a catastrophe and there are possibilities of climbing out of it. We want to try our hands."
He ruled out the danger of war in the region despite sporadic flare-ups along Israeli-Lebanese border and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, adding he does not think Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will prepare for a big action against the Palestinians.
"War was a Cold War product and nowadays it is very expensive to prepare for war," he said.
Solutions should be offered at a proper time
Commenting on a viewpoint that Israel and the Palestinians are in a dilemma where Sharon could not offer more than what former Prime Minister Ehud Barak had offered while Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could not take less than what Barak had offered, Peres said that the problem is not about what Barak offered or what Sharon will offer.
"The problem is when the offer should come on the table," he said. "Every solution must reach its maturity, and what is needed now is for the Israelis and Palestinians to build trust and create the climate for negotiations."
"One great mistake made by Barak was he asked Arafat to sign an agreement, saying that will be the end of the conflict and the Palestinians can make no more claims," he said. "He (Barak) raised the two thorny issues of return of (Palestinian) refugees and status of Jerusalem when it was not mature to solve them."
"If a problem does not yet have solutions, do not bring it up," he added.
Despite criticism of Barak's handling of the peace talks, Peres does not think that the peace plan prepared by Sharon is a proper adjustment to Barak's peace blueprint.
"I do not think the Palestinians should be allowed to establish a country only on 42 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. First of all, we should prepare the ground and then deal with territory."
He also called on Arafat to do his upmost to calm down the situation in the region.
Peres said that the two sides should take confidence-building measures as prescribed in the Mitchell report and create confidence for the negotiations.
The Mitchell report, released by an international inquiry committee on the causes of the Palestinian-Israeli violence headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell in May, lays down a road map for ending violence, resuming peace talks after a "cooling-off" period and building mutual confidence.
Peres said he believes that the ongoing conflict, in which more than 600 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed, is resolvable, adding that there are many "hidden solutions" for the problems and "we are waiting for a proper time because every solution that will be announced will create antagonism now."
"I do not think we have to announce ahead of time what will be the positions at the negotiations," he said.
Partnership with Sharon
Terming his decision to join the Sharon government as "very right" and their cooperation as "good", he denied that there have been cracks in the coalition government when he and Sharon argued publicly over how to deal with Arafat.
"We have arguments and debates because neither of us are 'yes' men," he added.
Peres stressed that he is not an ordinary official in the Sharon government but a partner and "a totally independent politician" and "a politician not of any establishment".
"Sharon sought my partnership because of my ideas ... I do not impose my ideas on Sharon and do not take orders from him. If I'm not treated as a partner, I will not stay in the government."
Peres said he does not judge Sharon "with an obsession for his past," but with the potential things he might do. "Down deep in my heart, I do believe he would also like to see peace and does not want to see his term finished with blood and fire."
He is confident the Sharon government will last until there is " full peace."
Peres said he does not believe Arafat, who shared the 1994 Nobel peace prize with him and late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, is not capable of striking a peace deal with Israel.
"Politics is to make a partner, not to discover an enemy," he said, adding that "I remember the time when I negotiated with him (Arafat) a peace agreement."
"We did it once and I believe we could do it again," he emphasized.
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