Israel's Lieberman says new peace approach needed

JERUSALEM - Israel's foreign minister told the U.S. Mideast envoy Thursday that wide-ranging concessions offered to Palestinians in the past resulted in wars and his country needs to find a new approach, the latest sign that the hard-line government and Washington are diverging on how to reach a settlement.

President Barack Obama's envoy George Mitchell, speaking at the meeting with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, reiterated Washington's solid support for creating an independent Palestinian state. That idea has been the guiding principle of U.S.-backed peace efforts in recent years.

"The minister reviewed the peace process since the (1993) Oslo agreement to the present day and pointed out the historic approach has so far not brought any result or solution," a statement from Lieberman's office said. "The minister also said that the new government will have to come up with new ideas and a new approach."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials of the new Israeli government have been at pains to speak of the emotional and strategic ties between Israel and the United States. But there is little disguising the differences between them on the basic outlines for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The ultra-nationalist Lieberman made waves after taking office last month, saying the past year of U.S.-led negotiations was no longer relevant and concessions to Palestinians only invite war.

"Past prime ministers were prepared to make wide-ranging concessions and the result of the Olmert-Livni government was the second Lebanon war, the operation in Gaza, severance of relations with Qatar and Mauritania, Gilad Schalit still in captivity and the peace process at a dead end," Lieberman's latest statement said.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni favored eventual Palestinian sovereignty over most of the West Bank and Gaza and some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem but no agreement with the Palestinians was reached.

Despite their efforts to exchange Palestinian prisoners for captured soldier Schalit, they failed to negotiate his release from the Hamas militants who have been holding him in Gaza for nearly three years.

Mitchell has not yet met Netanyahu in his first round of high-level talks with the new government but they are scheduled to talk Thursday evening.

Netanyahu has yet to unveil his policy on peace efforts and has not endorsed Palestinian statehood. He has spoken of shifting the emphasis to stimulating the Palestinian economy, leaving the issue of independence to an undefined future stage.

"U.S. policy favors _ in respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict _ a two-state solution which will have a Palestinian state living in peace alongside the Jewish state of Israel," Mitchell told reporters at the end of his meeting with Lieberman in Jerusalem.

He said Lieberman "described the efforts being made to make economic improvements and to get involved in other discussions with the Palestinians in the West Bank."

Earlier, Mitchell visited President Shimon Peres, who played down differences between Jerusalem and Washington.

"The policy of President Obama and his efforts for peace in this region are the same as the position of Israel," Peres' office quoted him as saying at the closed-door meeting.

Peres also sought to ease concerns that Israel could bomb Iran's nuclear facilities if international pressure failed to stop Tehran from developing nuclear arms which could be turned against the Jewish state.

"Talk of a possible Israeli attack on Iran is not true," Peres told Mitchell, according to the statement from his office. "The solution to Iran is not military."

Israel sees a nuclear Iran as the most serious threat to its existence. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction and Tehran has tested long-range missiles that could strike Israel.

While not directly threatening to take out Iran's nuclear facilities, Israel has kept the military option open.

Peres, a Nobel peace laureate and former leader of the dovish Labor Party, has a largely ceremonial role in Israeli public life. Strategic decisions are the preserve of Netanyahu and his government.

Promising a vigorous push for Israel-Palestinian peace, Mitchell made his first Mideast foray in January, just a week after Obama took office. He made a second visit with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a month later.

On Friday, he is scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank. Their government, headed by Abbas' Fatah movement, is in control only of the West Bank while their rivals in the militant Hamas group seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Efforts to reconcile those factions have so far failed, adding another serious obstacle to peace efforts.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)