John Lyons, Middle East correspondent April 03
ISRAEL'S new Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, yesterday unilaterally scrapped a key plank of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process brokered by the US two years ago without telling Washington, the Palestinian Authority or, it appears, his own Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The dramatic change to Israeli policy less than a day into the new Government came during what was expected to be a routine meet-and-greet session by Mr Lieberman with his new Foreign Ministry staff in Jerusalem.
Before drinking a toast with outgoing foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Mr Lieberman surprised the audience by announcing that Israel was not bound by the Annapolis agreement that then Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert signed with former US president George W. Bush and President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas at Mr Bush's country residence in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2007.
"It has no validity," Mr Lieberman told the staff.
The centrepiece of the agreement was that the US would help Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to move towards a two-state solution: Israel alongside a newly formed independent Palestine.
"The Israeli government never ratified Annapolis, nor did the Knesset," Mr Lieberman said, referring to Israel's parliament.
Key leaders from the Middle East attended the conference in Annapolis, which ended in an agreement between US, Israeli and Palestinian leaders that they would seek a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mr Lieberman said yesterday Israel would abide by the agreements made in 2003 on the road map for peace, but added: "And I voted against it."
"There is one document (the road map) that obligates us, and it is not the Annapolis document - it has no validity," he said.
While the road map set out a list of requirements by both the Israeli and Palestinian sides before there was any move towards "final status talks", that is, what would be the boundaries of a future Palestine and what would be the status of Jerusalem, the most sensitive issue of all, the Annapolis agreement fast-forwarded through many of these requirements and instead called on all parties to move straight to the final status talks.
"We will never agree to jump over all the clauses and go to the last one, which is negotiation over a final status agreement," he told the Foreign Ministry officials.
Mr Lieberman's concern about the Annapolis agreement appeared to be that it did not require the renunciation of violence against Israel.
After his comments, which were delivered as Ms Livni watched, she remarked: "You've convinced me I was right not to join the Government."
The US was caught by surprise by Mr Lieberman's comments. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said Washington stood by what was achieved at Annapolis and would continue to work for a two-state solution.
Asked specifically about Mr Lieberman's comments, Mr Duguid said: "We haven't heard their proposals yet. We haven't sat down with them."
A spokesman for the US National Security Council, Mike Hammer, said: "The President has said many times that we are committed to the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security.
"We look forward to working with the new Israeli Government and understand we will have frank discussions, and that these discussions will be based on an underlying shared commitment to Israel and its security."
The night before Mr Lieberman made his comments, Mr Netanyahu said in a speech to the Knesset before presenting his new Government that he would work towards a "permanent settlement" with the Palestinians.
"I say to the Palestinian leadership that if you really want peace we can achieve peace," the Prime Minister said.
Palestinian leader Mr Abbas reacted badly to Mr Lieberman's comments, saying he was "an obstacle to peace".
And former British prime minister Tony Blair said he believed the peace process was in "grave jeopardy".
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