Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni on Sunday reiterated her commitment to talks with the Palestinians, saying peace efforts should not be jeopardize by "political changes."
In her first foreign policy speech since taking up the cabinet-making mission over two weeks ago, the current foreign minister said she will push forward the peace process Israeli and Palestinian leaders resumed last November at a U.S.-hosted international conference in Annapolis.
"The Annapolis process will go on, we will continue to promote negotiations with the Palestinians," said the chief Israeli negotiator on the Palestinian front during the past year, at the opening event of the Foreign Ministry's Conference for Policy and Strategy.
As little tangible progress has been made since the Annapolis conference, expectations are lowering for the two sides to clinch a comprehensive peace deal within 2008 as they pledged, and calls are mounting for the two neighbors to speed up the negotiations.
While reaffirming her peace commitment, Livni warned that the parties should not rush into a deal. "We have the responsibility to conduct the process properly. Israel is dreaming of peace, but its legs are firmly rooted in a complex reality," she said.
In recent months, the already-sluggish peace process was further overshadowed by Israel's political turmoil surrounding the scandals and resignation of Livni's predecessor Ehud Olmert.
The election of Livni is widely seen as good news for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, thanks to her active involvement in the negotiations and her relatively leftish standpoints. Yet should she fail to cobble together a new government, an early general election would probably be held in the spring, in which recent polls showed the rightish Likud party would emerge as the biggest winner.
"Let us not allow dates or political changes to stand in our way," Livni told the audience, among which are Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham.
Meanwhile, Livni also expressed willingness to reach peace with Israel's other neighbors. "Israel wishes to arrive at peace with all of her neighbors, the Palestinians, Syria, Lebanon and the Arab nations," she said.
Source:Xinhua
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