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Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu said any peace deal with the Palestinians would take
at least another year to negotiate should both sides accept U.S.-proposed principles
to keep talks going. In an Israel Radio interview broadcast on
Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated that he regarded guidelines that U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry is drafting for a future deal as an "American document of American positions".
Such a definition could give Netanyahu leeway to register reservations that could discourage
staunch supporters of Jewish settlement in occupied land where Palestinians want to make
their state from bolting his coalition. "I think (the Kerry document) ... is a possible
path toward moving the talks forward. It will take us at least a year to exhaust these negotiations
but I can't say that the Palestinians will accept this document, and I also have not
seen it yet," he said. Netanyahu gave the interview on Thursday in
Los Angeles, before flying back to Israel after a U.S. visit that included White House
talks with President Barack Obama. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due
to see Obama on March 17 to discuss the so-called "framework deal" aimed at salvaging the faltering
negotiations, which began in July with a target date of April for a final agreement.
Abbas has rejected a core Netanyahu demand - recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
Palestinians fear such a condition will deny Palestinian refugees, who fled or were forced
to flee their homes in Arab-Israeli wars, any right of return.
"The nature of Israel is something that should be defined by Israelis, not Palestinians,"
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Israeli Army Radio on Sunday.
Erekat said Palestinians expected Israel to complete on March 28 the release of the final
batch of 104 Palestinian prisoners it agreed to free as part of peace efforts.
"And then the negotiations are supposed to continue until April 29," he said, referring
to the end of the nine-month negotiating period originally envisaged by Kerry.