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Livni: Time running out on Israel-Palestinian deal

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-06 09:59

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni warned Sunday that time is running out for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, with extremists gaining strength as negotiations stumble.

Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister and head of the ruling Kadima party, attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008. Israeli prime Minister Ehud Olmert has resigned in a corruption scandal but remains caretaker prime minister until his successor as head of the ruling Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, forms a coalition. [Agencies]

In her first foreign policy speech since her appointment to form a new Israeli government, Livni said Israel must press ahead with peace talks because "doing nothing has its own price."

Israel and the Palestinians resumed talks last November at an international conference hosted by President Bush. They set a target date of January 2009, when Bush leaves office, for completing a peace deal, but little apparent progress has been made, and both sides cast severe doubt about meeting the target.

Livni, who heads the Israeli negotiating team, warned there are dangers in letting the process drag on indefinitely.

"An understanding of what is under way in the region shows that time is not working in the favor" of Israel and regional moderates, she said, indicating the growing strength of the Islamic Hamas militants, who overran the Gaza Strip last year and are challenging moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

Livni was speaking at a strategy conference in Jerusalem. She is currently the foreign minister in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's transition government. Plagued by multiple corruption investigations, Olmert resigned last month after his party chose Livni to replace him.

Livni is trying to put together a majority coalition government. She has until November 3, but she warned that protracted political turmoil could be harmful. "Creating political stability quickly is necessary not for political needs, but so that we can ... deal with the challenges from outside, economic and others," she said.

If Livni fails to form a government, Israel would have to hold a general election early next year. Hard-line Likud opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu is confident of victory, running roughly even with Livni in current polls. He opposes most concessions to the Palestinians for peace.

Livni said peace talks with the Palestinians must continue regardless of the leadership changeovers in the US and Israel.

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