Deputy FM: ‘Dove of peace’ unlikely to emerge from meeting between Israeli, Palestinian officials
There is no chance for serious peace talks as long as the Palestinians are internationalizing the conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Monday following a meeting last week between Israeli and Palestinian officials in Amman.
Hotovely, who was discussing a meeting between Interior Minister Silvan Shalom and PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, said Shalom did not tell her about the meeting in advance.
“Let’s just say I don’t think the dove of peace will fly out from that meeting,” she said.
“He can do what he wants. It’s a free country.”
Sources in Shalom’s office said the meeting was in the works for some time, and followed a phone call last week, the first in more than a year, between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the occasion of Id al-Fitr.
Although no details emerged from the meeting, Shalom’s office said he hopes it would be the first in a series of discussions.