President Shimon Peres has proposed a new final status solution for the Palestinian Authority. Under the plan, Israel and the PA would agree to temporary borders, "subject to a clear promise that the borders will in a short span of time become permanent borders."
The president presented his proposal to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana when the two men met Thursday morning in Jerusalem.
On the agenda was the Arab-Israeli peace process, the 2002 Saudi Arabia peace initiative backed most recently by U.S. President Barack Obama, and the issue of the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.
Peres stated at the beginning of the meeting that Israel is interested in renewing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and urged all parties to take advantage of the climate of change in the region.
[Iranian President Mahmoud] "Ahmadinejad's negative behavior" has caused Arab countries in the Middle East to understand that "Israel is not the problem," said Peres. "The solution is peace, quiet and stability. We are at the threshold of a historic opportunity that we must not miss," he added.
"Talks should not be delayed and parties should not focus on the failure to find agreement on 20 percent of the issues, but rather to concentrate on the 80 percent of the issues in which positive progress was made.
"The Roadmap sets clear guidelines and it is time to implement that second phase [of the plan] – announcing a Palestinian state within temporary borders, with the promise that the borders will clarified through negotiations."
Peres also told Solana that Israel undertook not to build new communities in Judea or Samaria, and would dismantle the illegal outposts and "non-natural growth in settlement blocs." However, he did not commit the country to stemming "natural growth" in existing towns in the regions. He said instead that issue would be negotiated.
Solana responded, "I believe, like you, that there is an opening for peace in the Middle East. The positions of the U.S. and the European Union have never been so close and we work in cooperation with each other on a daily basis."
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has refused to begin talks unless Israel first complies with the precondition of agreeing to the establishment of a PA state.