'Ayalon: Israel ready for peace talks to stop UN bid'

Deputy foreign minister tells Palestinian TV station Ma'an that September plan is different from the 1947 UN Resolution 181 because it's unilateral.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Danny Ayalon 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Danny Ayalon 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Israel is ready to return to negotiations with the Palestinian Authority if it prevents the Palestinian statehood bid in the United Nations this September, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Wednesday.
"The Israeli government is ready to discuss all of the details with the Palestinians as long as they don't go to the UN," Ayalon said in an interview with the Palestinian Ma'an television station.
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The foreign minister also discussed the difference between the current Palestinian bid for statehood and the 1947 UN Resolution 181 which led to the creation of Israel, speaking in the Ma'an interview. In 1947, he explained, the UN called for the creation of two states, not just one. The Palestinian plan, he added, is a unilateral move.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a Lebanese TV station on Monday night that he is prepared to resume peace talks with Israel if the Americans and Europeans make a good offer to the Palestinians.
“The negotiations are my preferred choice,” Abbas said in an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.
“We have received a several offers and we have studied them and responded to them. But the Israelis didn’t accept these offers, especially the cessation of construction in the settlements.”
Abbas said he would not return to the negotiating table without agreement on terms of reference for the peace process and a freeze of settlement construction.
The Palestinians want Israel to agree in principle to the pre-1967 lines as the basis for a final agreement.
Abbas said that unless these conditions were met, he would go ahead with his plan to ask the United Nations in September to recognize a Palestinian state.
Khaled Abu Tomeah contributed to this report