Barak predicts peace talks in month or 2

Says diplomatic process may appear frozen, but "things definitely happening."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Barak smiles 298.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Barak smiles 298.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
After hopes for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations appeared to fade over the last few weeks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak painted a relatively positive picture of the peace process during Labor's faction meeting on Monday, predicting that talks would resume in the next month or two.
"On the surface the diplomatic process appears asleep and frozen, but I don't think that's really accurate," he said. "Under the surface both sides want negotiations."
"In the next month or two I think negotiations will restart," he said.
It comes days after Time magazine published an interviewwith US President Barack Obama in which he admitted that he erredduring his first year in office by raising too high expectations of aMiddle East breakthrough.
However, Barak played down severity of the interview.
"WhatObama said in the interview was interesting, but if you read it incontext, it is less sharp than it appears in the Israeli press," hesaid. "It (the peace process) is not going at the pace we wanted, butthings are definitely happening."