Livni: FM acted against our interests

Opposition leader says Lieberman "wiped out in 20 seconds" years of efforts made to advance peace.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Livni flag 248.88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
Livni flag 248.88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
Opposition leader and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni on Friday blasted comments made by her successor Avigdor Lieberman that Israel was no longer obligated by the Annapolis peace process, and she called on Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu to announce that he himself was not of that opinion. Livni said Lieberman had acted "against Israel's interests," and had "wiped out in 20 seconds" years of efforts made to advance the peace process. "This is a process of negotiations toward a final settlement," Livni told Israel Radio. "It has received international recognition and the world supports it." Livni said she had "expected Netanyahu to declare: 'What the foreign minister said is not my opinion,' but I haven't heard that yet." Lieberman's comments came Wednesday when Foreign Ministry employees gathered in the ministry for a changing of the guard ceremony together with Livni. "There is one document that obligates us - and that's not the Annapolis conference, it has no validity," Lieberman had said. "The Israeli government never ratified Annapolis, nor did the Knesset." The incoming foreign minister went on to say that the one document that obligates Israel was the 2003 road map, officially called "A performance-based road map to a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Livni, who did not respond publicly to Lieberman's words at the ceremony, was overheard afterward saying, "This speech proved that I did the right thing when I did not join the government." Herb Keinon contributed to this report