Israel Appears to Raise New Peace Talks Issue With U.S.
APRIL 28, 2014
JERUSALEM — Days after suspending American-brokered Middle East peace talks because of a reconciliation pact reached between the Palestine Liberation Organization and its rival Hamas, the Islamic militant group, Israel on Monday raised a new source of potential tension with the United States over Washington’s approach to the unity government planned by the Palestinians.
Israel has stated that it will not resume negotiations with any Palestinian government that is supported by Hamas, even if that government is made up of political independents and apolitical technocratic figures who meet international conditions for acceptance. An Israeli official said on Monday that Israel had in the past received “a specific commitment from the American administration” backing that position — a claim that appeared to be at odds with some more recent signals from Washington.
A senior State Department official said Monday that the administration was “not going to reveal the details of private conversations.”
The Israeli official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s diplomatic delicacy, said that the commitment had been given to Israel during President Obama’s first term in office and that it had been restated since his re-election. The official would not specify whether the commitment had been given in writing or by the president himself.
But he insisted that the Obama administration had backed Israel’s position against negotiating or dealing with such a unity government unless Hamas accepted the principles laid down by world powers after the Islamic group won Palestinian elections in 2006: to recognize Israel’s right to exist, to renounce all violence and to accept all previous signed agreements.
in full: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/world/middleeast/israel-appears-to-raise-new-peace-talks-issue-with-us.html?_r=0
