Livni: No Syria talks before elections

PM reportedly plans to ask Turkey to arrange 5th set of negotiations; Rice to visit next week.

By MARK WEISS
assad olmert 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
assad olmert 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Foreign Minister and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni distanced herself over the weekend from the notion of continuing discussions with Syria via Turkish mediation, following reports that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was planning to ask Ankara next week to arrange another round of talks. "If this is more than just keeping the negotiations alive, it is inappropriate and unacceptable," Livni said. "The government should concentrate now on the day-to-day functioning of the state and finding solutions to immediate crises - nothing more than this." Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told The Jerusalem Post, "The prime minister believes it is important that Israel continues the talks and negotiations on the Syrian track," but he would not confirm that Israel was weighing a formal approach to Turkey to renew the indirect negotiations with Syria that took place earlier this year. With the Syrian track frozen, representatives of the Quartet will gather in Sharm e-Sheikh this weekend to try to assess how much progress has made on the Palestinian track in the year since the launch of the Annapolis process. Livni, who also heads the Israeli negotiating team with the Palestinians, will attend the Sharm gathering, which will take place at the ministerial level. The chief Palestinian negotiator, former PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei, will also participate. Condoleezza Rice will arrive in the Sinai resort after talks in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, in what is likely to be her last visit to the region as US secretary of state. It will be her 19th visit to the Middle East in two years, and her eighth since Annapolis. The speculation about a resumption of the contacts between Israel and Syria followed last week's meeting in Jerusalem between Olmert and the visiting Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul. On Friday, Likud MKs asked Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz to examine whether Olmert had the authority to resume peace talks with Damascus while he headed a caretaker government. "Olmert has no authority for such a move and he has no legal right at the end of this government's term to make unacceptable commitments on Israel's behalf," said Likud MK Limor Livnat, who submitted the petition to the attorney-general. Livnat said she hoped Mazuz would act within a day or two to block Olmert from resuming the negotiations. Former foreign minister Likud MK Silvan Shalom expressed doubt over whether even the Syrians believed it was possible to clinch an agreement during the last few months of the government that the Israeli public would support and the Knesset would endorse. "Olmert has no ethical or legal authority to conduct peace talks and to make commitments in Israel's name," Likud MK Gilad Erdan said. Erdan's colleague in the Likud, Reuven Rivlin, said a transitional government didn't have a mandate to conduct negotiations over Israel's vital interests. He called on Kadima to show national responsibility and block Olmert from resuming the Syria talks. Negotiators have held four rounds of indirect talks through Turkish mediators, but contacts have been suspended for months because of Israel's political instability. An official in the Prime Minister's Office said Olmert was aware of the restrictions of his caretaker role and was not planning to reach agreements with Damascus. Instead, he hoped to receive answers about Syria's willingness to distance itself from its allies in Iran and Hizbullah. There was also criticism from Olmert's cabinet, with Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai of Shas saying negotiations with Syria "legitimize the axis of evil" and that talks at this time would weaken Israel. In contrast, Science, Culture and Sport Minister Ghaleb Majadle of Labor said that especially at this current juncture, peace talks with the Syrians and the Palestinians must be accelerated. "When we need to make peace, it should not be delayed just because of elections," he said. Kadima MK Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael also defended the continuation of peace talks with Syria. "There is no reason to stop the peace negotiations with Damascus," he said. "It will take time for talks to advance to the agreement stage anyway."