NETANYAHU BLOCKED 2011 PEACE DEAL: ISRAELI PRES

Tel Aviv, 8 Rajab 1435/7 May 2014 (MINA) – The Israeli President Shimon Peres has revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked a 2011 peace deal with acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.

Peres told Israel’s Channel Two television in an interview on Tuesday that he and Abbas had finalized a draft agreement in a series of secret meetings in Jordan, but Netanyahu and his right-leaning government dismissed it.

“We had gone through all of the points and the agreement was ready,” Peres said, adding that the Israeli premier told him to wait a few days because “he thought that Tony Blair could get a better offer.”

He was referring to the UK’s former prime minister who is now the envoy for the Middle East Quartet — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

“The days passed and there was no better offer,” Peres added. Press TV reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

In August 2011, Abbas told a meeting of Fatah movement that he had held four rounds of negotiations with the Israeli president.

“After the first four meetings, a fifth meeting was planned in Amman but Shimon Peres made his excuses and told me: ‘I’m sorry but the government doesn’t accept what we have negotiated and there’s nothing more I can do’,” he said.

Peres’ comments came after nine months of US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority collapsed in late April. .(T/P012/P04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)