6.10.2009

Pessimism hovers over Bibi's upcoming policy speech

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a key diplomatic policy speech next week, which analysts cautioned would unlikely bring any tangible impetus into the stagnant peace process with the Palestinians.

The planned address is regarded to some extent as a response to U.S. President Barack Obama's landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last week, during which Obama urged Israel to freeze settlement expansion and accept the two-state principle.

Prior to his speech next Sunday, Netanyahu is expected to consult with other cabinet ministers, most of whom are from the traditionally hawkish right-wing bloc, and to meet Obama's special envoy George Mitchell.

While it is all but certain that Netanyahu will dwell upon the Iranian nuclear issue and the Syrian peace track, the address will lay emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian front, said Shmuel Bar, a political expert at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Regarding this decades-old conflict, Netanyahu would remind the Palestinians first and foremost of their obligations in order for peace talks to resume, including renouncing violence, building responsible institutions and ending Hamas' control of the Gaza Strip, said Bar.

Read more @ CRI English

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