Israeli FM Triggers Palestinian Walkout

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Avigdor Lieberman said "a long-term intermediate agreement…could take a few decades," Israeli website Ynetnews reported.

The Palestinian delegates reacted to the comments by storming out of the session, dpa reported.

The United States pressure resulted in the renewal of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in early September. The negotiations had broken off at the turn of 2009, when Tel Aviv launched a war on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians.

Israel has already dealt a severe blow to the process by declining to renew a partial freeze it had imposed in November 2009 on its construction of illegal Jewish settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories.'

Read more...