Benjamin Netanyahu aide denies PM okayed return to ’67 lines in talks with Palestinians
An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied on Friday a report in an Israeli tabloid which claimed that the premier had agreed in principle to an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines.
“The prime minister never agreed to a return to the ’67 lines, a partition of Jerusalem, and recognition of the right of return,” the aide said. “His position on these issues remains unchanged.”
According to the popular circulation daily Yediot Aharonot, Netanyahu considered an agreement with the Palestinians that would have uprooted West Bank settlements and recognized Palestinian claims in Jerusalem.
The document was the result of secret talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority during Netanyahu’s previous term, from 2009-2013, the daily reported.
In the document considered by Netanyahu’s envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s confidant Hussein Agha, Israel would agree to negotiate a peace deal on the basis of the 1967 borders, with land swaps and terms that would allow Israelis living in the West Bank to choose whether to remain under Palestinian rule.